Aurelia Butler

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    Regulator Sues Anti-Police Activist Who Spent Charity Funds on Himself

    Brandon Anderson, who used his nonprofit’s accounts to rent mansions and buy luxury clothes, was featured in a New York Times story in August.The District of Columbia’s attorney general on Monday sued an activist known for his calls to abolish the police, saying that he diverted $75,000 from a charity to pay for mansion rentals, a trip to Cancún and designer clothes.Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb, an elected Democrat who oversees nonprofits in the city, said Brandon Anderson had turned an anti-police-brutality charity called Raheem AI into a piggy bank for himself.Mr. Schwalb also sued Raheem AI. He asked a judge to shutter the organization, bar Mr. Anderson from leading any other Washington nonprofit and order Mr. Anderson or Raheem AI to repay the $75,000. The money would then be given to a charity chosen by the judge.“Brandon Anderson misused charitable donations to fund lavish vacations and shopping sprees, and the Raheem AI board of directors let him get away with it,” Mr. Schwalb said in a written statement. He continued, “My office will not allow people to masquerade behind noble causes while violating the law.”Mr. Schwalb has jurisdiction in the case because Raheem AI was incorporated in Washington. A spokesman for him declined to say what prompted the investigation. A former staff member at the nonprofit named Jasmine Banks told The New York Times this year that she had reached out to Mr. Schwalb’s office, seeking help after the nonprofit stopped paying her salary.Mr. Anderson did not respond to a request for comment sent on Monday morning. He has previously told The Times that he takes responsibility for the group’s failures: “The bottom line is simply that it didn’t work, and as the leader of that effort I share most of the blame.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Find the 13 Book Titles Hidden in This Text Puzzle

    Veronica woke up early Saturday afternoon in her mother’s rowhouse basement as heavy snow fell outside. Feeling hungry, she threw on some clothes and headed out, pausing to relatch a gate at the stairs meant to corral the cat. As she prepared to cross the narrow brick lane between the house and the family diner, wind gusts slammed her. She entered the restaurant shivering.“Normally you’d be a day late and a dollar short because the good stuff is usually gone by now,” said her mother as she sat marking the corrections on the printer’s proof of her new menu.“Well, the storm’s a mercy then,” said Veronica as she closed the door. “I’d hate to be at risk of missing out.”“You need some proper New England white clam chowder and not that red New York stuff. Hang on.”“There’s no place like home, Ma,” said Veronica.Veronica woke up early Saturday afternoon in her mother’s rowhouse basement as heavy snow fell outside. Feeling hungry, she threw on some clothes and headed out, pausing to relatch a gate at the stairs meant to corral the cat. As she prepared to cross the narrow brick lane between the house and the family diner, wind gusts slammed her. She entered the restaurant shivering.“Normally you’d be a day late and a dollar short because the good stuff is usually gone by now,” said her mother as she sat marking the corrections on the printer’s proof of her new menu.“Well, the storm’s a mercy then,” said Veronica as she closed the door. “I’d hate to be at risk of missing out.”“You need some proper New England white clam chowder and not that red New York stuff. Hang on.”“There’s no place like home, Ma,” said Veronica.Veronica woke up early Saturday afternoon in her mother’s rowhouse basement as heavy snow fell outside. Feeling hungry, she threw on some clothes and headed out, pausing to relatch a gate at the stairs meant to corral the cat. As she prepared to cross the narrow brick lane between the house and the family diner, wind gusts slammed her. She entered the restaurant shivering.“Normally you’d be a day late and a dollar short because the good stuff is usually gone by now,” said her mother as she sat marking the corrections on the printer’s proof of her new menu.“Well, the storm’s a mercy then,” said Veronica as she closed the door. “I’d hate to be at risk of missing out.”“You need some proper New England white clam chowder and not that red New York stuff. Hang on.”“There’s no place like home, Ma,” said Veronica. More

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    Barbara Taylor Bradford, ‘A Woman of Substance’ Novelist, Dies at 91

    Her own rags-to-riches story mirrored those of many of her heroines, and her dozens of books helped her amass a fortune of $300 million.Barbara Taylor Bradford, one of the world’s best-selling romance novelists, who captivated readers for decades with chronicles of buried secrets, raging ambitions and strong women of humble origins rising to wealth and power, died on Sunday. She was 91.She died after a short illness, her publisher, HarperCollins, said on Monday. No other details were provided.Beginning with the runaway success of her 1979 debut novel, “A Woman of Substance,” Ms. Bradford’s 40 works of fiction sold more than 90 million copies in 40 languages and were all best sellers on both sides of the Atlantic, according to publishers’ reports.Ten of her books were adapted for television films and mini-series, and the author, a self-described workaholic whose life mirrored the rags-to-riches stories of many of her heroines, achieved global celebrity and amassed a $300 million fortune.She was born in England into a working-class family whose grit inspired some of her stories. Her father lost a leg in World War I, her mother was born out of wedlock, and her grandmother once labored in a workhouse for the poor. She quit school at 15, became a journalist, married an American film producer and lived for 60 years in New York. She was a self-taught novelist, publishing her first when she was 46.Exploiting exotic locales and an arsenal of steamy liaisons, mysterious deaths and feasts of betrayal and scandal, Ms. Bradford spun tales of love and revenge, infidelity and heartbreak that lofted resolute women into glittering lives with handsome men, mansions in London or Manhattan and the board rooms of global corporations. Empires were born in her pages, and sequels turned into dynasties.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Newsom Challenges Trump on Electric Vehicle Tax Credits

    Gov. Gavin Newsom said California would fill the void for residents if the Trump administration killed a $7,500 E.V. tax credit.California will step in and provide rebates to eligible residents who buy electric vehicles if President-elect Donald J. Trump ends the $7,500 federal E.V. tax credit, Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Monday.“We will intervene if the Trump administration eliminates the federal tax credit, doubling down on our commitment to clean air and green jobs in California,” Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, said in a statement. “We’re not turning back on a clean transportation future — we’re going to make it more affordable for people to drive vehicles that don’t pollute.”Mr. Newsom’s proposal comes as California officials gird for an extended battle with the incoming Trump administration over environmental policy, immigration and other issues. As he did during his first term, Mr. Trump is expected to try once again to block California’s authority to set auto emissions limits that are stricter than federal standards.Already, Mr. Newsom has called a special session of the California Legislature for December, in part to discuss an increase in funding for litigation. During Mr. Trump’s first term, California sued his administration more than 120 times.Mr. Trump cannot unilaterally eliminate the electric vehicle tax credits, which are part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Congress would have to amend the law or pass a new one to erase the credits. But his transition team has indicated that the president-elect wants the credits gone.Under the law, consumers can lower the purchase price of an electric, plug-in hybrid or fuel-cell vehicle by up to $7,500 for a new vehicle and up to $4,000 for a used one. There are some restrictions, including income ceilings, for those who qualify.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    The Markets Cheer Trump’s Treasury Pick, Scott Bessent

    Investors seemed to signal their approval for Scott Bessent as a safe choice to implement the president-elect’s economic agenda.Stocks and bonds are gaining on Monday, as investors seem to cheer the pick of Scott Bessent to run the Treasury Department.Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty ImagesA steady hand Stocks and bonds are rising on Monday, and the dollar is down. On the first trading day since Donald Trump chose the billionaire financier Scott Bessent as his pick for Treasury secretary, investors seem to be signaling they like the choice.The hedge fund mogul is seen as a steady hand to enact the president-elect’s economic vision — and, just as important, oversee the $28 trillion Treasuries market. “Investors prefer orthodoxy, predictability, and coherence from economic policy; there were fears that some of the candidates may not possess those attributes. Bessent does,” Paul Donovan, chief economist of UBS Global Wealth Management, wrote in a research note on Monday.The Key Square Group founder overcame serious opposition from some in Trump’s inner circle. Elon Musk derided Bessent as a “business-as-usual choice” and threw his weight behind Howard Lutnick, the C.E.O. of Cantor Fitzgerald. When Trump tapped Lutnick to lead the Commerce Department instead, Bessent was left to fight it out against the likes of Mark Rowan, the boss of Apollo Global Management, the private equity giant.Bessent won a “knife fight” to get the nod. On Wall Street, a document was circulated suggesting that his Key Square hedge fund had underperformed the booming markets. Bessent’s ascent is notable in that he doesn’t appear to have been on Trump’s radar during his first administration.His background as a former Democratic donor who worked with George Soros, a villain for the right, has also been scrutinized. (Interesting fact: Bessent furnished the progressive billionaire financier with key data that prompted Soros to make one of his most famous trades: shorting the British pound.) Some Trump backers, including Palmer Luckey, the defense tech entrepreneur, worried about Bessent’s commitment to the president-elect’s America-first agenda.Investors appear to have fewer qualms. Bessent gets high marks as a fiscal conservative and a champion of growth — at Key Square, he told clients that Trumponomics would usher in an “economic lollapalooza” — through deregulation and lower taxes.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Washington Curtails Intel’s Chip Grant After Company Stumbles

    The Biden administration is reducing its award to the chip maker, partly to account for a multibillion-dollar military contract.The Biden administration plans to reduce Intel’s preliminary $8.5 billion federal CHIPS grant, a move that follows the California-based company’s investment delays and broader business struggles.Intel, the biggest recipient of money under the CHIPS Act, will see its funding drop to less than $8 billion from the $8.5 billion that was announced earlier this year, four people familiar with the grant said. They all spoke on the condition of anonymity because the final contract had not yet been signed. The change in terms takes into account a $3 billion contract that Intel has been offered to produce chips for the U.S. military, two of these people said.The government’s decision to reduce the size of the grant follows Intel’s move to delay some of its planned investments in chip facilities in Ohio. The company now plans to finish that project by the end of the decade instead of 2025. The chip maker has been under pressure to reduce costs after posting its biggest quarterly loss in the company’s 56-year history.The move by the Biden administration also takes into account Intel’s technology road map and customer demand. Intel has been working to improve its technological capacity to catch up to rivals like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, but it has struggled to convince customers that it can match TSMC’s technology.Intel’s troubles have been a blow to the Biden administration’s plans to rev up domestic chip manufacturing. In March, President Biden traveled to Arizona to announce Intel’s multibillion-dollar award and said the company’s manufacturing investments would transform the semiconductor industry. Intel’s investment was at the forefront of the administration’s ambition to return chip manufacturing to the United States from Asia. The CHIPS Act, a bipartisan bill passed in 2022, provided $39 billion in funding to subsidize the construction of facilities to help the United States reduce its reliance on foreign production of the tiny, critical electronics that power everything from iPads to dishwashers.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘Dune: Prophecy’ Season 1, Episode 2 Recap: The Agony

    Valya has shown that she is clearly willing to sacrifice whatever, and whomever, it takes to accomplish her goal. Season 1, Episode 2: ‘Two Wolves’Desmond Hart is an anomaly. He is alive after a sandworm attack that should have left him in the belly of the beast. He knows of the Sisterhood’s secret plan to play puppet master with the universe’s rulers as their marionettes. He can burn people to death using only his mind, apparently from light years away. He can resist the Voice, with which Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen has subdued even other powerful members of her own Sisterhood.He has no compunction about consigning a child to an agonizing death, or about torturing that child’s father for displaying insolence toward the emperor he serves. He’s a scary dude.He also has a point.There’s no question where “Dune: Prophecy” wants your sympathies to lie regarding this guy; burning a little boy to death won’t win you many fans. However, in its second episode, the show reveals that Mother Valya is playing a game in which, up until recently, she was the only real player on the field. By installing her Truthsayers throughout the Imperium, she has managed to manipulate not only the emperor and his aristocratic frenemy, Duke Richese, but also the rebel forces responsible for taking down spice harvesters on Arrakis and infiltrating the imperial palace. When the rebel cell has outgrown its usefulness, she has no problem ordering its exposure and destruction. It’s all for the greater good, after all.The same is true of the orders she gives back at the Sisterhood’s home base. To her sister Tula’s dismay, Valya orders that Tula’s star pupil, Lila (Chloe Lea), undergo “the Agony.” This portentously named process, a version of which is undergone by Paul Atreides and his mother, Lady Jessica, in the “Dune” films, involves ingesting a poison with no antidote. With proper command of the body on a cellular level, an acolyte can break the poison down, unlocking her “genetic memory” — the collected knowledge and wisdom of all her maternal forebears — and becoming a Reverend Mother in the process.Why Lila? A powerful empath, she is secretly the great-great-granddaughter of Mother Raquella, the Sisterhood’s founder and the first woman to (involuntarily) undergo this process. If Lila is able to contact Raquella within her own mind, Valya believes that they can learn more about their founder’s prophecy concerning “the Reckoning” and “the Burning Truth.”But training for the Agony usually takes many years, and this is a rush job, precipitated by the coming of Desmond Hart and the monkey wrench he has thrown into the Sisterhood’s plans.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Uruguay’s Center Left Reclaims Power in Presidential Election

    After a campaign notable for the amiable tone from both sides, Yamandú Orsi was named the winner.MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — A onetime mayor and history teacher defeated the candidate of the conservative coalition that has governed Uruguay for the past five years to win his country’s presidency on Sunday.Even as ballots in the closely contested runoff election were still being counted, Álvaro Delgado, the current president’s chief of staff, conceded defeat to his challenger, Yamandú Orsi.“With sadness, but without guilt, we can congratulate the winner,” Mr. Delgado said.Mr. Orsi’s center-left party, the Broad Front, released a statement saying that “joy will return” and announcing him as the winner.Election officials said that with just over half the ballots counted, Mr. Orsi had secured 784,523 votes, and Mr. Delgado 771,434.Mr. Delgado’s concession signaled an end to the short stint of the right-leaning government in Uruguay that in 2020, when President Luis Lacalle Pou took office, ended 15 years of government by the Broad Front. During that period, the Broad Front oversaw the legalization of abortion, same-sex marriage and the sale of marijuana.“I called Yamandú Orsi to congratulate him as president-elect of our country,” Mr. Lacalle Pou said in a statement, adding that he would “put myself at his service and begin the transition as soon as I deem it appropriate.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More