NEWS OF THE DAY
1 Migrant drowns: A 10month-old baby was found dead Thursday and three other migrants were feared drowned after their raft flipped in the night on the Rio Grande as they tried to cross the U.S.Mexico border, law enforcement officials said. The missing included a 7-year-old boy and another child believed to be around the same age, as well as a man. Border Patrol agents encountered a man at about 9:45 p.m. Wednesday near Del Rio, Texas. He told them a raft carrying nine people had overturned and his baby son and nephew had been swept away along the other child and man. The agents heard the man’s wife and an older son screaming in the darkness and pulled them from the muddy water alive.
2 Opioid convictions: A pharmaceutical company founder accused of paying doctors millions in bribes to prescribe a highly addictive fentanyl spray was convicted in a Boston courtroom Thursday. John Kapoor, the 76-yearold former chairman of Insys Therapeutics, was found guilty of racketeering conspiracy. Four ex-employees of the Chandler, Ariz.-based company, were also convicted. Some of the most sensational evidence in the months-long federal trial included a video of employees dancing and rapping around an executive dressed as a giant bottle of the powerful spray Subsys, and testimony about how the company made a habit of hiring attractive women as sales representatives.
3 Bomb plotter guilty: A man who plotted to bomb New York City’s subways, then switched sides after his arrest and spent nearly a decade helping the U.S. identify and prosecute terrorists, was rewarded for his help Thursday with a sentence of 10 years in prison, effectively time he has already served. Najibullah Zazi, a 33-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, faced up to life in prison after pleading guilty to terrorism-related charges.
4 Mayor steps down: Baltimore’s mayor resigned under pressure Thursday amid a flurry of investigations into whether she arranged bulk sales of her self-published children’s books to disguise hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks. Mayor Catherine Pugh’s resignation came a week after her City Hall offices and homeswere raided by FBI and IRS agents.
5 Climate accord: The Democratic-controlled House approved a bill Thursday that would prevent President Trump from fulfilling his pledge to withdraw the United States from the landmark Paris climate agreement and ensure the U.S. honors its commitments under the global accord. The bill falls far short of the ambitious Green New Deal pushed by many Democrats, but it is the first significant climate legislation approved by the House in nearly a decade. The measure was approved, 231-190, and now goes to the Republican-run Senate, where it is unlikely to move forward. Trump, who pledged in 2017 to withdraw from the Paris agreement as soon as 2020, has said he will veto the legislation if it reaches his desk.