New York
NY Times used Ireland to rescue journalist
NEW YORK — The New York Times said it turned to the Irish government to rescue a reporter threatened with arrest in Egypt two years ago out of concern that the Trump administration wouldn’t help.
Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger revealed the incident during a speech at Brown University and in an op-ed published Tuesday. He criticized President Trump for seeding a “worldwide assault on journalists and journalism” and said it’s time for the U.S. to again champion the rights of a free press.
In August 2017, the Times was contacted by a U.S. government official who warned that Declan Walsh, a reporter based in Egypt, was going to be arrested, Sulzberger said. The Times magazine had just published Walsh’s story about Giulio Regini, an Italian student found dead in Cairo and the subject of a dispute between Italy and Egypt about whether the Egyptian government was involved.
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The U.S. official who contacted the Times operated on the belief that the Trump administration would sit on the information and not help the reporter, Sulzberger said. Walsh, who is an Irish citizen, tweeted that he called the U.S. government press office in Cairo upon getting the warning and was directed to the Irish embassy. Within an hour, an Irish diplomat drove him to the airport and Walsh left for Europe. He has since returned to work in Egypt.
New Aretha Franklin track to be released
NEW YORK — Christmas is bringing the gift of a previously unreleased Aretha Franklin recording.
“Big Band Holidays II” from the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis has a holiday album that will feature the late icon singing “O Tannebaum.” Franklin performed the song as she played the piano at a 2015 holiday concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center; her performance of the classic, in both English and German, was a surprise.
It will be featured on the album, which is being digitally released on Oct. 25 and will be in stores on Nov. 8. Few songs have been released from Franklin since her death in August 2018.
California
Man sentenced in USC admissions scandal
A Los Angeles business executive was sentenced Tuesday to four months in prison for paying $250,000 to get his son admitted to the University of Southern California as a fake water polo recruit.
Devin Sloane, 53, pleaded guilty in May to a single count of fraud and conspiracy. He is the second parent sentenced in a sweeping college admissions scandal that has ensnared dozens of wealthy mothers and fathers.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani also ordered Sloane to perform 500 hours of community service over two years of supervised release and pay a fine of $95,000.
Authorities say Sloane helped fabricate documents depicting his son as an international water polo star even though he had never played the sport. He bought water polo gear online, investigators found, and staged action photos of his son in the family’s swimming pool.
Wildfire threat brings power cuts to thousands
SAN FRANCISCO — Thousands of people in Northern California woke up Tuesday without electricity after Pacific Gas & Electric cut power to try to prevent wildfires amid windy, dry and hot conditions.
PG&E cut electrical service to 24,000 customers in three counties in the Sierra Nevada foothills Monday evening, saying power will remain off until weather conditions improve.
Butte County is where a wildfire blamed on PG&E transmission lines killed 86 people last year and virtually leveled the town of Paradise.
Utah
Man, 60, gets 10 years in espionage case
SALT LAKE CITY — A former U.S. intelligence officer convicted of trying to pass defense information to China was solemn as he was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison and said he “would give anything” to change his actions.
Ron Rockwell Hansen, 60, wearing a gray jumpsuit, apologized in a trembling voice to his family and former colleagues for “pain and damage” he caused.
“Your honor there simply are no words to accurately and fully express the depth of regret I have for my decisions and actions … I am so sorry,” he told the judge in Salt Lake City. “I would give anything to go back and change this. Anything.”
Wire reports
