NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
Prosecutor jailed: Philadelphia’s top prosecutor pleaded guilty Thursday to a corruption charge, resigned from office and was sent immediately to jail by a judge who said he couldn’t be trusted. In a surprise development two weeks into his federal trial, District Attorney Seth Williams pleaded guilty to a single count of accepting a bribe from a businessman in exchange for legal favors. Williams, 50, faces up to five years in prison at a sentencing hearing on Oct. 24 under a plea deal struck during the middle of the night after a series of phone calls. The city’s first black district attorney had been charged with 29 counts of bribery, extortion and fraud.
Pot trafficking: A mammoth marijuana trafficking ring that pretended to be growing weed for sick people was instead illegally shipping the drug to a halfdozen other states and bilking investors, including former NFL players, Colorado officials announced Wednesday. A Denver grand jury indicted 62 people and 12 businesses in the case that involved federal and state agents executing nearly 150 search warrants at 33 homes and 18 warehouses and storage units in the Denver area. The indictment says the enterprise produced more than 100 pounds of illegal pot each month for shipment to Kansas, Texas, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma and other states.
Pipeline security: Michigan’s attorney general called Thursday for shutting down twin oil pipelines that run beneath the waterway where Lakes Huron and Michigan meet. Republican Bill Schuette said a “specific and definite timetable” should be established for decommissioning the nearly 5-mile-long section in the Straits of Mackinac. Environmental groups say the pipeline, which carries about 23 million gallons of light crude oil and liquid natural gas daily across sections of Michigan’s Upper and Lower peninsulas, is unsafe and should be removed. Subway crisis: Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for the New York City subway system Thursday and said he would sign an executive order to accelerate efforts to improve service, including undertaking badly needed repairs and obtaining new cars and equipment. Cuomo said the dismal performance of the system was no longer acceptable and said he had ordered the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to provide a reorganization plan for the agency within 30 days. New York Times protest: With the imminent elimination of a stand-alone copy desk at the New York paper, copy editors and reporters sent strongly worded letters to top management voicing their concerns over the changes to the newsroom. The letters were letter to Dean Baquet, the Times’ executive editor, and Joe Kahn, managing editor, challenging their decision to eradicate the copy desk, whose responsibilities include catching factual and grammatical errors and ensuring articles adhere to style guidelines. On Thursday, employees staged a 15-minute walkout.