NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
➊ Nonexistent masks: Two Houstonarea men have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that they negotiated a deal to sell 50 million nonexistent N95 masks to a foreign government in an attempt to defraud it out of more than $317 million, federal officials said this week. Paschal Ngozi Eleanya, 46, and Arael Doolittle, 55, were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in southern Texas. If convicted on all counts, they could face up to 45 years in prison. The targeted foreign government was New South Wales, an Australian state.
➋ Threatened renters: A North Carolina man who pleaded guilty three months ago to charges that he threatened to shoot an African American family for renting a home has been sentenced to more than two years in prison. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the prison sentenced handed down to Douglas Matthew Gurkins, 34, on Monday, is followed by three years of supervised release. Officials didn’t say where the incidents occurred. Court documents said Gurkins drove to the family’s home, yelled racial slurs and threatened to shoot the mother and four children and any other Black people who entered the property. The family moved out a few days later.
➌ Wolfensohn dies: James Wolfensohn, who served as the president of the World Bank for 10 years and was a guiding force for a couple of the most wellknown cultural institutions in the U.S., has died. He was 86. Wolfensohn died Wednesday at his home in Manhattan according to the Institute for Advanced Study, where he had been a past chair of the board. Wolfensohn worked on Wall Street for many years before heading the World Bank, a loanoffering global development organization, in 1995. He was nominated by President Bill Clinton.
➍ Murder charges: A Chicago couple acting as caretakers for a mentally ill man and a third person have been charged with murder in the man’s slaying, authorities said. Chicago police found the bruised body of Frederick Johnson in the couple’s South Side garage on June 25. He died from multiple blunt force trauma injuries. Santino Carter, 38; Dominique Beck, 29; and Brian Gray, 48, have each been charged with firstdegree murder in Johnson’s death. Beck also is charged with neglect as a caregiver. Carter and Beck collected Johnson’s disability checks to serve as his caretakers in their home for about two years, Cook County prosecutors said. Johnson, who was in his 40s, had schizoaffective and bipolar disorders and a history of seizures.
➎ Immigrant children: The U.S. government on Wednesday appealed a judge’s order barring the expulsions of immigrant children who crossed the border alone, a policy enacted during the coronavirus pandemic to deny the children asylum protections. Judge Emmet Sullivan issued a preliminary injunction on Nov. 18 sought by advocates for immigrants that barred expulsions of unaccompanied children under public health laws. The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.