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      Alabama Grand Jury Calls for Police Force to Be Abolished After Indicting 5 Officers

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      The grand jury said that the Hanceville Police Department, which had eight officers as of last August, had been operating “as more of a criminal enterprise.”A grand jury in Alabama is calling for a small police department to be abolished after recently indicting its chief and four other officers as part of a sweeping corruption investigation, saying that the department had operated “as more of a criminal enterprise than a law enforcement agency.”The Hanceville Police Department, which serves a city of roughly 3,000 residents about 45 miles north of Birmingham, employed just eight officers as of last August, when the chief, Jason Marlin, was sworn in.On Wednesday, the chief’s mug shot was projected onto a screen at a news conference announcing the arrest of the chief and four officers on felony and misdemeanor charges. The wife of one of those officers was also indicted.Champ Crocker, the district attorney of Cullman County, said that corruption in the department had become so pervasive that it had compromised evidence in many cases and had created unsafe conditions at the local jail — and was even connected to the overdose last year of a 911 dispatcher at the department.“With these indictments, these officers find themselves on the opposite end of the laws they were sworn to uphold,” Mr. Crocker said. “Wearing a badge is a privilege and an honor, and that most law enforcement officers take seriously. A badge is not a license to corrupt the administration of justice.”During the half-hour news conference, the district attorney spoke in general terms about the nature of the misconduct the chief and the other officers are accused of. Court records offered some additional details about the accusations, which include the mishandling of evidence, use of performance-enhancing drugs and unauthorized access to a law enforcement database.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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      Trump Says He Would Have Had a ‘Very Nasty Life’ if He’d Lost the Election

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      President Trump said Wednesday he would have had a “very nasty life” if he lost the presidential election, a surprisingly public acknowledgment that his legal challenges could have consumed his life and brought jail time.“If I lost, it would have been very bad,” Mr. Trump said at an investment summit in Miami Beach. “It was dangerous, actually very dangerous.”When Mr. Trump won in November, the Justice Department abandoned the two federal cases against him, and a judge in Manhattan issued an unconditional discharge in his hush money case.Mr. Trump gave voice to something that his advisers had long said he had in the back of his mind as he campaigned. But he did not publicly acknowledge throughout 2024 that he was campaigning for his freedom as much as for the White House itself.The president made the comments in response to a question about how he would spend a year if granted a sabbatical. Mr. Trump did not directly answer the question, saying he was honored to be president. But he said it took “a certain amount of courage” to run again because of the personal risks.Mr. Trump also said he disagreed with historians’ assessment that Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated, were the two most mistreated presidents.“Nobody was treated like me,” he said. “Nobody, and I will tell you, you learn a lot about yourself, but there’s nothing I’d rather do.”During the presidential campaign, Mr. Trump faced dozens of criminal charges across four different cases. Jack Smith, who served as a special counsel, charged him in two different cases, one related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and another related to his handling of classified government documents after he left the White House in 2021. The documents case had been dismissed by a Trump-appointed judge, but Mr. Smith’s team was appealing it.He also faced charges in Georgia over attempts to overturn his election loss in 2020, and he was found guilty on all counts in the hush-money case in New York, where he could have faced up to four years in prison.Maggie Haberman More

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      DOGE Cuts 9/11 Survivors’ Fund, and Republicans Join Democrats in Rebuke

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      After 20 percent of the World Trade Center Health Program staff was terminated last week, Democratic lawmakers were outraged. On Wednesday, Republican lawmakers joined them.In a rare pushback against President Donald J. Trump, a coalition of congressional Republicans from the New York area rebuked the president for cuts to a federal program that administers aid to emergency workers and others suffering from toxins related to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.In a letter to Mr. Trump, seven Republicans urged Mr. Trump “as a native New Yorker who lived in New York City as it recovered from the 9/11 terrorist attacks” to reverse the cuts to the World Trade Center Health Program and rehire staff members who were fired several days ago.They echoed the immediate outcry from Democratic lawmakers and advocates when the cuts were made beginning late last week, as part of Elon Musk’s so-called department of government efficiency, or DOGE, which is cutting spending and eliminating jobs across a wide swath of federal agencies. On Monday, New York’s Democratic senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, issued a letter demanding the cuts be restored.The initial reaction from Republicans was more muted, but by Wednesday, as it became clearer that the blowback to the firings was widespread, the Republican resistance grew more vocal, especially from districts in and around New York City, where the memory of 9/11 still resonates powerfully.“This staff reduction will only make it more difficult for the program to supervise its contracts and to care for its members who are comprised of the brave men and women who ran towards danger and helped in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks,” the congressional members wrote in the letter.It was largely written by Representative Andrew R. Garbarino, a Republican from Long Island, and co-signed by five other Republican congressional colleagues from New York and Representative Chris Smith from New Jersey. The other congressional co-signers were Nick LaLota, Mike Lawler, Claudia Tenney, Nicole Malliotakis and Nick Langworthy, all supporters of Mr. Trump.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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      Send Us Your Views on Airplane Safety and the D.C. Reagon Airport Crash

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      We want to hear your perspective on the circumstances that led to the Jan. 29 midair collision near Reagan National Airport, and on air safety and regulation in general. What works and what does not?The Jan. 29 collision of a passenger jet and a military helicopter close to Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport was the worst in nearly a quarter of a century, taking 67 lives. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash, and a combination of flawed communications and congested airspace in the area appear to be part of the explanation.The Reagan National crash was only the first in a string of recent aviation accidents spanning from Philadelphia to Nome, Alaska. On Feb. 17, another U.S. passenger jet crash-landed in Toronto, injuring more than a dozen people.In the interests of educating the public and shining a brighter light on aviation safety, we want to better understand what has happened in Washington and beyond. Are you a pilot who has spotted a detail we haven’t reported on? Are you a passenger who has been affected by the Reagan National crash or others? Maybe you are a current or former government employee with oversight of these matters who has a suggestion for us in our reporting? If any of this sounds like you, we would like to hear your perspective.We’ll read every response to this questionnaire and contact you if we’re interested in learning more about your story. We won’t publish any part of your response without following up with you first, verifying your information and hearing back from you. And we won’t share your contact information outside the Times newsroom or use it for any reason other than to get in touch with you. More

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      Trump Urged to Halt Firings at the FAA

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      The Trump administration is facing pressure to protect the Federal Aviation Administration from further layoffs after hundreds of workers were fired over the weekend.The job cuts were part of a government restructuring under Elon Musk, an adviser to President Trump who is heading a cost-cutting initiative.Mr. Musk’s team has helped push through layoffs of thousands of workers across the government, including at the Transportation Department. But at the same time, the department’s secretary, Sean Duffy, has asked Mr. Musk, whose companies span the sectors of technology and transportation, to aid in addressing the agency’s aging air traffic control technology.The firings come at a time when the F.A.A., the nation’s premier aviation safety agency, is dealing with several deadly plane crashes across the country, including a midair collision between an Army helicopter and American Airlines plane that killed 67 people on Jan. 27. About 400 probationary workers — who were “hired less than a year ago” — were cut from the agency, according to Mr. Duffy, in a social media post on Monday responding to criticism from his Democratic predecessor, Pete Buttigieg.“Zero air traffic controllers and critical safety personnel were let go,” Mr. Duffy wrote.The Transportation Department added in a statement that the agency was continuing to hire and train air traffic controllers and aviation safety workers. However, union representatives say that some of the fired employees served in important support roles.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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      Winnie Harlow and Kyle Kuzma’s Engagement Met With Star-Studded Congratulations

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      The couple’s happy news captured the hearts of celebrity friends and fans alike.The model Winnie Harlow and the N.B.A. player Kyle Kuzma announced their engagement on Tuesday, posting photos on Instagram and sharing details of the proposal in an interview with Vogue. Mr. Kuzma, 29, a forward for the Milwaukee Bucks, proposed to Ms. Harlow, 30, on Feb. 13.According to Vogue, he chartered a private plane to Turks and Caicos Islands for the long weekend, returning to a special spot where they had vacationed together in 2022. The plane was decorated with roses, balloons, chocolate and Champagne, but Ms. Harlow didn’t see a proposal coming, instead thinking it was a grand romantic gesture for Valentine’s Day.He read her a poem he’d written, which ended with the line: “Will you be my wife?” She said yes.The ring — an “8.5-carat oval-cut engagement ring with two baguette stones on the side,” per Vogue — was designed by Mr. Kuzma. He told the magazine: “I just wanted to draw a picture of what I felt resembled her — something that was elegant, but very timeless and simplistic at the same time.”After their plane touched down, Mr. Kuzma surprised Ms. Harlow yet again. Her family, Mr. Kuzma’s family, as well as some friends, were waiting at a private villa for them to celebrate their engagement all together.“I’ve dreamed of this moment ever since I was a little girl, and it was even more beautiful than I could have imagined,” Ms. Harlow told The New York Times in an emailed quote sent by a representative. “I’m overflowing with love for him and so excited to start this incredible new chapter of our lives.”By Wednesday evening, the couple’s joint announcement post on Instagram had more than 900,000 likes and thousands of comments. Stars of the entertainment, fashion and sports worlds and beyond commented, sending their congratulations to the couple.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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      So, You Want to Get Rid of the Penny. Do You Have a Plan for the Nickel?

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      President Trump’s plan to eliminate the penny could save the government money, but there’s no guarantee.President Trump recently ordered the U.S. Mint to stop producing pennies, for a simple-sounding reason. Each penny, he said, has “literally cost us more than 2 cents.”He’s right. Since 2006, the government has spent more money minting pennies than those pennies have been worth. More

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      What Is Elon Musk’s Job?

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      Even as the billionaire tech executive Elon Musk is seemingly everywhere in Washington, his role remains murky.Early on in his interview with President Trump and Elon Musk yesterday, Fox News’s Sean Hannity tried ever so gently to get to the bottom of an important question: What does Musk actually do?“He’s your tech support?” Hannity asked, referring to the words on the T-shirt Musk had opened his blazer to reveal a few moments earlier.Musk said he was.“He’s much more than that,” Trump insisted.The exchange did little to answer the question. Musk’s precise role and responsibilities remain so vague, and so shrouded in secrecy, that even he and the president haven’t quite agreed on what to call it, or exactly how to talk about it.Trump once said that it would be Musk’s job to “lead” the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, but a court filing this week said he was not actually the administrator of that effort — although it did not say who was. The White House has called Musk a “special government employee,” and Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, insisted that the department merely advised agencies, without the authority to fire people.“He’s more powerful than a cabinet secretary, but he is not Senate-confirmed,” said Jessica Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a former Republican Senate aide, who added that, at the same time, Musk offers little public information about his day-to-day activities.The White House has not laid out exactly how many people are part of Musk’s team, or exactly what they are doing. For all of Musk’s promises of transparency, the public is learning about his team’s work largely through reporting and through, as my colleague Zach Montague pointed out today, legal filings. Even judges are having difficulties ascertaining basic facts about the group’s incursion into agencies and the data its staff is collecting.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