Mexican man found not guilty in death
SANFRANCISCO — A jury on Thursday found a Mexican man not guilty of murder in the killing of a woman on a San Francisco pier that touched off a national immigration debate two years ago.
JoseInes Garcia Zarate hadbeen deported five times andwas wanted for a sixth deportationwhen Kate Steinlewas fatally shot while walkingwith her father in 2015.
GarciaZarate did not deny shootingMs. Steinle, but said itwas an accident that occurred after the bullet ricochetedoff a walkway and struckMs. Steinle. He was foundguilty of being a felon inpossession of a firearm.
Drug prices targeted
WASHINGTON— The U.S. must take urgent steps to rein in the out-of-control cost of prescription drugs, including aggressive government intervention to negotiate lower prices for American patients, a panel of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine recommended Thursday in a new report on pharmaceutical pricing.
The report, titled “Making Medicines Affordable: A National Imperative,” includes a strongly worded indictment of the nation’s prescription drug market, which it warns is failing millions of sick people, and takes aim at several of the pharmaceutical industry’s practices, including directto-consumer marketing and efforts by drugmakers to block and delay the introduction of lower-priced generic medicines.
Smaller monument sites?
President Donald Trump plans to shrink the Bears Ears National Monument site by 85 percent and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument site by half, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post that show the Utah sites would be cut more than administration officials previously signaled.
Individuals briefed on the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said changes still could be made before Mr. Trump announces his final decision Monday.
The move would be the most significant reductions by any president to designations made under the 1906 Antiquities Act, which gives the president unilateral authority to protect imperiled sites on federal lands and in federal waters.
Many Republicans have said that previous presidents abused their authority under the act by placing large areas off limits to industrial development, motorized vehicle use and other activities.
Bail deal for Manafort
WASHINGTON —Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort has reached a bail deal with prosecutors led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, agreeing to secure his release with four properties worth $11.6 million, forgo foreign travel and limit his travel within the U.S.
In a court filing, Mr. Manafort’s lawyers agreed to forfeit the homes held by him, his wife, and with their daughter if he fails to appear in court to face criminal money laundering and fraud charges in connection with his work advising a Russia-friendly political party in Ukraine.
Mr. Manafort, 68, and his co-defendant, business partner Rick Gates, 45, have been under home confinement and GPS monitoring with few exceptions since pleading not guilty Oct. 31 in the first criminal allegations in Mr. Mueller’s probe of possible Russian influence in U.S. political affairs.