The former leader of the Proud Boys and the founder of the Oath Keepers have been released from prison after their lengthy sentences for seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol were wiped away by a sweeping order from President Donald Trump. Enrique Tarrio and Stewart Rhodes were two of the highest-profile Jan. 6 defendants and received some of the harshest punishments in what became the largest investigation in Justice Department history. Rhodes, of Granbury, Texas, was serving an 18-year prison sentence, and Tarrio, of Miami, was serving a 22-year sentence.

The defense has rested its case in the trial of former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan. Madigan faces 23 counts of bribery and racketeering. The jury was sent home early today and will be back in the courtroom for closing arguments that are expected to begin on Wednesday. Closing arguments are expected to last three days. Also today the judge in the trial denied a motion for co defendant Mike McClain’s motion to separate his trial from Madigan’s. McClain was a long time confidante to Madigan.

Donald Trump’s cabinet picks are beginning their nomination process this week, starting with Trump’s choice for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth. The hearing opened Tuesday as senators question whether the former combat veteran and TV news show host is fit to lead the U.S. military.

Here’s the latest:

Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth questioned Hegseth on his knowledge of geopolitics
And she questioned Hegseth’s experience in global affairs and whether he had ever conducted an audit of his non-profits in a manner similar to the audit he intends to carry out at the Pentagon.

Hegseth said his leadership of the charities had been “mischaracterized” but did not answer Duckworth’s question. Flanked by a portrait of the Soldier’s Creed by which all army service members are expected to live, Duckworth told Hegseth troops “cannot be led by someone who is not competent,” directing her critique at President-elect Donald Trump’s pick.

A comment from Sen. Roger Wicker drew applause
The packed audience broke out into brief applause after the committee chairman, Sen. Roger Wicker told Hegseth “it seems to me that you’ve supervised far more people than the average United States senator.”

The Mississippi Republican’s comments came after Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., inquired why senators should support him despite him not ever leading an organization of comparable size to the military.

An exchange between Hegseth and Sen. Elizabeth Warren drew laughter from the audience
Warren, a Democrat, asked Hegseth whether he’d commit to not serving in the defense industry for ten years after his service should he become defense secretary. Hegseth said he had not given the issue any thought.

“You are quite sure every general who serves should not go directly into the defense industry for 10 years but you’re not willing to make that same pledge?” Warren asked.

“I’m not a general, senator,” Hegseth replied.

Both Hegseth and Warren have said generals and other high-ranking officials should not be allowed to work for private defense contractors for at least a decade after their service in the armed forces.

The military’s prioritization of weeding out extremism was misplaced, Hegseth says
He cited a report that around 100 people were identified as extremists in the military, a number he considered small and said were “mostly gang related.”

“Things like focusing on extremism, senator, have created a climate inside our military that feel political when it has hasn’t ever been political,” Hegseth said.

“Those are the types of things that are going to change,” he promised. He added that Trump’s broader strategy and personality would help ease recruitment challenges the military has faced in recent years.

“There’s no better recruiter for our military, in my mind, than President Donald Trump,” Hegseth said.

He promised the administration would be “getting anything that isn’t related to meritocracy” out of the military, multiple times claiming lawmakers and higher level military officials have been “injecting DEI” that “divides” the armed services. He argued that the Pentagon should instead focus on “how capable you are of doing your job.”

Hegseth was questioned about his tattoos
North Dakota Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer asked about Hegseth’s tattoos, which have come under question for their association and use by White Nationalist groups.

However Cramer did not focus on the “Deus Vult” tattoo that got Hegseth flagged as a potential “insider threat.” Instead Cramer focused on the Jerusalem Cross — which was not flagged and was not the reason Hegseth was pulled from duty.

Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan defended Hegseth
And the Alaska senator called it “a ridiculous narrative” that the military has a serious problem with extremism or is “systemically racist.”

Sullivan called the Biden administration’s declarations early in the administration that they would prioritize curbing extremism a “shameful” smear of the armed services. The Biden administration focused on curbing white nationalist recruitment of service members and veterans.

Hegseth added in an exchange that the military is “one of the least racist institutions in our country” to which Sullivan replied it is “one of the greatest civil rights organizations in the United States.” The federal government integrated the military years before the Civil Rights Act.

Hegseth had a less combative exchange with Republican Sen. Joni Ernst
Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, a military veteran and sexual assault survivor, ended up being far less combative in her exchange with Hegseth.

Ernst was cordial with Hegseth and focused primarily on the Department of Defense passing a financial audit.

Ernst is one of the three critical votes Hegseth cannot afford to lose in his confirmation.

Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono engaged in a tense exchange with Hegseth
It was over news reports that he had drank on the job while employed at Fox News and elsewhere.

Hirono directly asked Hegseth if he would commit to not drinking while in service, which she called “a 24/7 job,” and after a tense back and forth she concluded he would not.

Hirono also asked him whether he’d follow orders from Donald Trump to invade Greenland, which is controlled by NATO-ally Denmark, occupy the Panama Canal or shoot protestors of the incoming administration in the leg. Hegseth cited the election and a need for strategic ambiguity as reasons he could not answer the questions. Hirono concluded that he would follow such commands.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal inquired into the tax returns of two veterans support non-profits
The Democratic senator noted that Hegseth had been pushed out of one non-profit due to dissatisfaction from donors, to which Hegseth replied that he spent the interceding time obtaining a degree from the Harvard Kennedy School.

At one organization Hegseth led from 2011 to 2016, Blumenthal noted that during several years of his management the organization “had deep debts including credit card transaction debts of about 75,000. That isn’t the kind of fiscal management we want at the Department of Defense.”

Blumenthal told Hegseth he would support him for a communications job but not to lead the Defense Department.

“I would support you as a spokesperson to the Pentagon,” Blumenthal said. “I don’t dispute your communication skills.”

Hegseth has made accusations that standards have been lowered to allow women in combat
And he continued to tout those claims even as senior female lawmakers who’ve served on the committee for years, including Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, asked him for one specific example of standards being changed for women.

Hegseth did not provide one, instead deferring to interviews he’d conducted for his book “War on Warriors,” that it was what he was told by troops.

A senior defense official said “the standards for military service have not been lowered,” and that the standards are based on each field and based on ability, not gender.

Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Kirsten Gillibrand hammered Hegseth over his views on women in combat
Shaheen noted that Hegseth has said publicly: “I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles.” But has since then said more generally he supports women in the military.

“Which is it?” Shaheen demanded, adding, “I appreciate your 11th hour conversion.”

She submitted for the record a chapter of his book that outlines his opposition to women in combat. She also asked whether that meant he did not think the two female senators who served in the military are less capable.

Gillibrand told Hegseth his quotes about women are terrible and harmful to morale.

“You will have to change how you see women to do this job,” she said.

Hegseth faces a Senate committee that includes several women
As Pete Hegseth’s stance on the role of women in the military comes under questioning by both Democratic and Republican senators, he faces a committee with several women combat and foreign policy leaders.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who’s a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, has been an advocate for women in the military and women’s rights globally. Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, are both combat veterans who sit on the committee.

Freshman Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., served in the intelligence community. And a narrow majority of the Senate Armed Services Committee are women, including a majority of its Democratic members.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen asked multiple questions about Hegseth’s stances on women in the military
Just after her questions, committee chair Sen. Roger Wicker motioned to introduce five testimonials from women who had served in the military in support of Hegseth’s nomination.

Hegseth was combative in the face of questions from Democrat Ranking Member Reed
Hegseth often talked past Reed’s questions and refused to defer to the senior member as he tried to get his questions answered.

In one particular exchange, Hegseth scoffed as Reed asked him to explain what a “JAG Off” was — responding to Reed that “I don’t think I need to” because troops knew what it was. Only after further pressure from Reed did Hegseth say it was a military lawyer who “put their own priorities in front of the warfighters.”

Would Hegseth be the first defense secretary who’s been on the font lines in combat?
The argument that Hegseth would be the first door-kicker or service member to serve on the front lines in combat to become defense secretary has continued to evolve and become far more specific.

An array of previous secretaries have had combat service, dodging bombs and leading troops into the fight, including current Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin who led the invasion into Iraq.

On Tuesday, the assertion was whittled down to Hegseth being the first “to have served as a junior officer on the front lines, not in the headquarters, on the front lines in the War on Terror.”

It’s not clear how “junior” an officer they had to be.

Lt. Col. Jim Mattis fought in the Gulf War — he later retired as a four-star general and was Trump’s first defense secretary. And Trump’s final acting Pentagon chief, Chris Miller, served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan as an Army special forces officer. He later retired as a colonel.

Chuck Hagel was a first: the first former enlisted soldier to become defense secretary, and he served as a sergeant on the front lines in Vietnam.

Sen. Reed pressed Hegseth on his opposition to diversity initiatives in the military
Ranking member Sen. Jack Reed, Democrat, noted that the military was a forerunner in American society on racial integration efforts and other inclusive standards.

Hegseth said that it was “precisely right the military was a forerunner in courageous racial integration in ways no other institutions were willing to do” but argued that modern diversity and inclusion policies “divide” current troops and didn’t prioritize “meritocracy.”

Reed replied that Hegseth’s statements were “a political view” that he repeated in harsher terms without mentioning meritocracy in past statements.

Reed said Hegseth’s intention was to “politicize the military in favor of your particular position” and would harm “the professionalism of the United States military.”

Sen. Wicker denies request to release FBI report to the full committee
While Reed and Wicker were maintaining a bipartisan tone, Wicker denied Reed’s requests to release the FBI report to the fuller committee and denied a request to allow members a second round of questioning.

Ranking member Jack Reed called the FBI investigation ‘insufficient’
“There are still FBI obligations to talk to people. They have not had access to the forensic audit” of Hegseth’s time at the head of a veteran’s advocacy group where he is facing questions of financial mismanagement, the Democrat said.

Hegseth criticizes the accusations made against him
Hegseth called the accusations of drinking and womanizing he would face from “left wing media” on “second and third hand accounts” a “coordinated smear campaign orchestrated in the media against us.” Hegseth said the attacks were about Trump, not him.

He did not specifically address any of the accusations and did not tell Chairman Wicker that he did not drink or womanize.

Several more protestors jumped out from the audience
Wearing camouflage fatigues, the protestors stood on their chairs and began condemning Hegseth throughout his opening remarks. Each was swiftly dragged out from the hearing by Capitol Police.

One woman jumped up and yelled that her veteran father “had committed suicide after his service and you’re sending money to bomb babies…every veteran in here needs to speak up” she screamed as she was ushered out of the room. Another yelled that Hegseth supported “murdering babies…that’s the real recruiting crisis” he screamed as three officers carried him by his arms and legs out.

Several other people were approached by police and directed out of the room without any clear coercion.

More from Hegseth’s opening remarks
Hegseth in his opening remarks Tuesday said “officers and enlisted, Black and white, young and old, men and women, all Americans, all warriors — this hearing is for you. Thank you for figuratively, and literally, having my back. I pledge to do the same for you. All of you.”

Hegseth struck a far different tone in his opening remarks than he did in his books
Comments in his books included inflammatory passages questioning the capabilities of Black troops — like a passage in “War on Warriors” that “we can assume that 17 percent of all Black officers in the Air Force are promoted simply because of how they look,” and questioning the value of women serving in combat.

As Hegseth spoke, a protester calling him a misogynist was removed from the hearing

Jimmy Carter was celebrated Thursday for his personal humility and public service before, during and after his presidency during a funeral at Washington National Cathedral featuring the kind of pageantry the 39th U.S. president typically eschewed.

All of Carter’s living successors were in attendance, with President Joe Biden, the first sitting senator to endorse his 1976 run for the White House, delivering a eulogy. Biden and others took turns praising Carter’s record — which many historians have appraised more favorably since losing his bid for a second term in 1980 — and extolling his character.

“He built houses for people who needed homes,” said Joshua Carter, a grandson who recalled how Carter regularly taught Sunday school in his native hamlet of Plains, Georgia, after leaving the White House. “He eliminated diseases in forgotten places. He waged peace anywhere in the world, wherever he saw a chance. He loved people.”

Jason Carter, another grandson, praised his grandfather and his wife Rosalynn, who died in 2023. He wryly noted the couple’s frugality, such as washing and reusing Ziploc bags, and the former president’s struggles with his cellphone.

“They were small-town people who never forgot who they were and where they were from no matter what happened in their lives,” said Jason, who chairs the Carter Center, a global humanitarian operation founded by the former president after leaving office.

The extraordinary gathering offered an unusual moment of comity for the nation in a factionalized, hyper-partisan era. Former President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump, political rivals who have mocked each other for years, sat next to each other Thursday and talked for several minutes, even sharing a laugh.

Biden, who will leave office in 11 days, hinted at politics in repeating several times that “character” was Carter’s chief attribute. Biden said the former president taught him the imperative that “everyone should be treated with dignity and respect.”

“We have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor,” Biden said, also noting the importance of standing up to “abuse in power.” Those comments echoed Biden’s typical criticisms of Trump, his predecessor and successor.

As Trump went to his seat before the service began, he shook hands with Mike Pence in a rare interaction with his former vice president. The two men had a falling out over Pence’s refusal to help Trump overturn his election defeat to Biden four years ago. Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump in November, entered afterwards and was not seen interacting with him. Michelle Obama, the former first lady, did not attend.

Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100, living so long that two of the eulogies were written by people who died before him — his vice president Walter Mondale and his White House predecessor Gerald Ford.

“By fate of a brief season, Jimmy Carter and I were rivals,” said the eulogy from Ford, which was read by his son Steven. “But for the many wonderful years that followed, friendship bonded us as no two presidents since John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.”

Carter defeated Ford in 1976 but the presidents and their wives became close friends, and Carter eulogized Ford at his own funeral.

Days of formal ceremonies and remembrances from political leaders, business titans and rank-and-file citizens have honored Carter for decency and using a prodigious work ethic to do more than obtain political power.

The proceedings began Thursday morning as military service members carried Carter’s flag-draped casket down the east steps of the U.S. Capitol, where the former president had laid in state, to be transported to the cathedral. There was also a 21-gun salute.

At the cathedral, the Armed Forces Chorus sang the hymn “Be Still My Soul” before Carter’s casket was brought inside.

Mourners also heard from 92-year-old Andrew Young, a former Atlanta mayor, congressman and U.N. ambassador during the Carter administration. Carter outlived much of his Cabinet and inner circle, but remained especially close to Young — a friendship that brought together a white Georgian and Black Georgian who grew up in the era of Jim Crow segregation.

“Jimmy Carter was a blessing that helped create a great United States of America,” Young said.

“Hail to the Chief” was performed by the band as his casket was carried out. Carter once tried to stop the traditional standard from being played for him when he was president, seeing it as an unnecessary flourish.

Thursday concludes six days of national rites that began in Plains, Georgia, where Carter was born in 1924, lived most of his life and died after 22 months in hospice care. Ceremonies continued in Atlanta and Washington, where Carter, a former Naval officer, engineer and peanut farmer, has lain in state since Tuesday.

After the morning service in Washington, Carter’s remains, his four children and extended family will return to Georgia on a Boeing 747 that serves as Air Force One when the sitting president is aboard.

The outspoken Baptist, who campaigned as a born-again Christian, will then be remembered in an afternoon funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church, the small edifice where he taught Sunday school for decades after leaving the White House and where his casket will sit beneath a wooden cross he fashioned in his own woodshop.

Following a final ride through his hometown, past the old train depot that served as his 1976 presidential campaign headquarters, he will be buried on family land in a plot next to Rosalynn, to whom Carter was married for more than 77 years.

Carter, who won the presidency promising good government and honest talk for an electorate disillusioned by the Vietnam War and Watergate, signed significant legislation and negotiated a landmark peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. But Carter also presided over inflation, rising interest rates and international crises — most notably the Iran hostage situation with Americans held in Tehran for more than a year. Carter lost in a landslide to Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Former White House aide Stu Eizenstat used his eulogy to make an effort to reframe the Carter presidency as more successful than voters appreciated at the time.

He noted Carter deregulated U.S. transportation industries, streamlined energy research and created the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He emphasized that Carter’s administration secured the release of the American hostages in Iran, though they were not freed until after Reagan took office.

“He may not be a candidate for Mount Rushmore, but he belongs in the foothills,” Eizenstat said.

The Illinois Department of Public Health says the states overall respiratory illness level has gone from moderate to high. Hospitals are seeing an early uptick in winter hospitalizations. Emergency room visits topped 21 percent last week…that’s up 17 percent from the week before and the number of visits for the flu doubled. Covid cases were up 1.5 percent during the same period. There have been four pediatric deaths so far this season from the flu, covid and RSV.

The world population increased by more than 71 million people in 2024 and will be 8.09 billion people on New Year’s Day, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Monday.

The 0.9% increase in 2024 was a slight slowdown from 2023, when the world population grew by 75 million people. In January 2025, 4.2 births and 2.0 deaths were expected worldwide every second, according to the estimates.

The United States grew by 2.6 million people in 2024, and the U.S. population on New Year’s Day will be 341 million people, according to the Census Bureau.

The United States was expected to have one birth every 9 seconds and one death every 9.4 seconds in January 2025. International migration was expected to add one person to the U.S. population every 23.2 seconds. The combination of births, deaths and net international migration will increase the U.S. population by one person every 21.2 seconds, the Census Bureau said.

So far in the 2020s, the U.S. population has grown by almost 9.7 million people, a 2.9% growth rate. In the 2010s, the U.S. grew by 7.4%, which was the lowest rate since the 1930s.

Amazon delivery drivers and Starbucks baristas are on strike in a handful of U.S. cities as they seek to exert pressure on the two major companies to recognize them as unionized employees or to meet demands for an inaugural labor contract.

The strikes that started Thursday and Friday followed other recent standoffs between corporate America and organized labor. Large and established labor unions secured meaningful employer concessions this year following strikes by Boeing factory workers, dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports, video game performers, and hotel and casino workers on the Las Vegas Strip.

But workers at Starbucks, Amazon and some other prominent consumer brands still are fighting for their first contracts. Amazon refuses to acknowledge the organizing efforts of drivers and warehouse workers — many of whom have voted to unionize — even though the powerful Teamsters union says it represents them. Starbucks long resisted the unionization of its stores, but had agreed to negotiate a contract by the end of the year.

Why are the strikes happening now?
Strikes — particularly ones that happen during the holidays, a time of high economic activity — can help unions exercise leverage during negotiations or flex their muscles by garnering support from workers and sympathetic consumers.

Both Amazon and Starbucks saw a wave of organizing efforts following the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic focused attention on front-line workers and the impact of economic inequality on the lives of wage-earning Americans.

Employees organized at bookstores, where unions are rare, and were successful with campaigns at some stores run by Apple, Trader Joe’s and the outdoor equipment company REI.

But turning those wins into contracts can be a challenge. At Amazon and Starbucks, which were not unionized before the pandemic, workers have yet to secure an agreement with the e-commerce and coffee giants, which both have their headquarters in Seattle.

John Logan, director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University, said he thinks the Amazon and Starbucks workers are “desperate” to make progress before President-elect Donald Trump gets to appoint a Republican majority to the National Labor Relations Board, which is expected to be less friendly to unions during his administration.

“The unions want to make these disputes public and bring political pressures on the companies,” Logan said in a written statement. “If these disputes drag on until next year, and if they are fought largely through the labor board and the courts, the unions and workers will almost certainly lose. This might be their last, best chance to pressure the companies in public before Trump comes into office.”

However, Trump has also given some signs that he might be friendlier to labor during his second term compared to his first term. Last month, he picked Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer to lead the Department of Labor in his new administration, elevating a Republican congresswoman who has strong support from unions, including the Teamsters. Teamsters President Sean O’Brien also spoke at the Republican National Convention this past summer.

Teamster-led strikes at Amazon
The Teamsters say workers at Amazon are striking at seven delivery stations in Southern California, San Francisco, New York City, Atlanta and Skokie, Illinois, because the company ignored a Sunday deadline the union had set for contract negotiations. At midnight on Saturday, the Teamsters say workers will also strike at a prominent warehouse in New York, which voted to join the fledgling Amazon Labor Union in 2022 and have since elected to affiliate with the Teamsters.

The prominent labor group says it’s fighting for higher wages, better benefits and safer working conditions for Amazon employees, many of whom experience economic insecurity while working for a company worth $2.3 trillion. It has not said how many Amazon warehouse workers or drivers are joining the striking.

The union has mainly focused on organizing delivery drivers, which the company says are not its workers because they are directly employed by contractors Amazon recruited to handle package deliveries.

That type of setup gives the Amazon more cover from unionization attempts in an industry — transportation and trucking — that’s dominated by the Teamsters. However, the union has argued before the National Labor Relations Board that the drivers, who wear Amazon’s ubiquitous gray-blue vests and drive similarly colored vans, should be classified as company employees.

Meanwhile, the online retailer has accused the union of pushing a “false narrative” about the thousands of workers it claims to represent. Amazon has also touted its pay, saying it provides warehouse and transportation employees a base wage of $22 per hour plus benefits. It also recently boosted hourly pay for the subcontracted delivery drivers.

In September, the NLRB, which has taken a more pro-labor stance under President Joe Biden, filed a complaint that found the drivers to be joint employees of Amazon. The agency also accused Amazon of unlawfully failing to bargain with the Teamsters on a contract for drivers at a California delivery hub.

The Teamsters union says it also represents Amazon warehouse workers, including thousands of employees at the major New York City fulfillment center who voted to be represented by the Amazon Labor Union.

Amazon objected to the 2022 warehouse election results, alleging the Amazon Labor Union and the federal labor board had tainted the vote. A regional NLRB director issued a complaint last year that accused Amazon of violating the law by refusing to bargain with the union.

Amazon, in turn, is challenging the constitutionality of the NLRB in federal court along with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. In June, the Supreme Court made it harder for the agency to win court orders in labor disputes, siding with Starbucks in a case brought by the company.

Contract negotiations at Starbucks
Unlike Amazon, contract negotiation have been underway at Starbucks.

But Starbucks Workers United, the union that has organized workers at 535 company-owned U.S. stores since 2021, said the company has failed to honor a commitment made in February to reach a labor agreement this year.

The union also wants Starbucks to resolve outstanding legal issues, including hundreds of unfair labor practice charges that workers have filed with the National Labor Relations Board. The agency also has opened or settled hundreds of charges against Amazon.

In launching the strikes that started Friday in Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle, Workers United said Starbucks proposed an economic package with no new wage increases for unionized baristas now and a 1.5% increase in future years.

Union leaders said the strikes expanded on Saturday to include stores in Denver, Pittsburgh and Columbus, Ohio. In a post Sunday on X, the union said that picket lines had expanded to Brooklyn and Long Island in New York, St. Louis and Pittsburgh.

Without providing a specific number, labor leaders said dozens of Starbucks stores are now affected by the strike.

“We were ready to bring the foundational framework home this year, but Starbucks wasn’t,” Lynne Fox, president of Workers United said in a statement. “After all Starbucks has said about how they value partners throughout the system, we refuse to accept zero immediate investment in baristas’ wages and no resolution of the hundreds of outstanding unfair labor practices.”

Starbucks said Workers United prematurely ended a bargaining session this week. The company also says it already offers pay and benefits worth $30 per hour for baristas who work at least 20 hours per week.

Starbucks workers walked off the job on two occasions last year. Workers United has said the latest strikes could spread to hundreds of stores across the country by Christmas Eve.

Patricia Campos-Medina, who recently ran for the U.S. Senate as a Democrat in New Jersey and leads Cornell University’s Worker Institute at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, said she expects there to be more union activity before Trump takes office.

Trump’s reactions will give the public a chance to see what his “commitments are to the working class,” Campos-Medina said.

Workers at seven Amazon facilities went on strike Thursday, an effort by the Teamsters union to pressure the e-commerce company for a labor agreement during a key shopping period.

The Teamsters said the workers, who voted to authorize strikes in recent days, joined picket lines after Amazon ignored a Sunday deadline the union set for contract negotiations. The union called it the largest strike against the company in U.S. history, although Amazon said it did not expect the labor action to impact its operations.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters claims it represents nearly 10,000 workers at 10 Amazon facilities, a small portion of the 800,000 workers employed in the company’s U.S. warehouses. The union hasn’t said how many workers would participate in the strike or how long the walkout would last.

“Amazon is pushing its workers closer to the picket line by failing to show them the respect they have earned,” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said in a statement.

The strikes happening Thursday are taking place at seven delivery stations, which are run by contractors who drop off of packages to customers everyday. They include three locations in Southern California, and one each in New York City, Atlanta, Georgia, and Skokie, Illinois, according to the union’s announcement.

The biggest warehouse affiliated with the Teamsters is located in the New York City borough of Staten Island. In 2022, thousands of workers at the warehouse, known as JFK8, voted to be represented by the nascent Amazon Labor Union. Workers then choose to affiliate with the Teamsters this past summer.

The National Labor Relations Board certified that election to unionize, but Amazon has refused to bargain on a contract. In the process, the company has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the labor board.

At the other six facilities, employees – including many delivery drivers – unionized with the Teamsters by demonstrating majority support but without holding government-administered elections. Under labor law, companies can recognize unions without elections being held, but the practice is rare, said John Logan, director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University.

Amazon workers in more locations are “prepared to join” the fight, the Teamsters said, noting that employees at the Staten Island warehouse and at a company air hub in California also have authorized strikes.

When asked about the strike Thursday, Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said: “What you see here are almost entirely outsiders, not Amazon employees or partners, and the suggestion otherwise is just another lie from the Teamsters.”

“The truth is that they were unable to get enough support from our employees and partners and have brought in outsiders to come and harass and intimidate our team, which is inappropriate and dangerous,” Nantel said.

Amazon has said it does not consider delivery drivers like the ones on strike to be its employees. Under the company’s business model, the drivers work for third-party businesses, called Delivery Service Partners, who deliver millions of packages daily. Amazon has accused the union, which says it represents some of the drivers, of “intentionally” misleading the public.

“This is another attempt to push a false narrative,” Nantel said.

But the Teamsters have argued Amazon essentially controls everything the drivers do and should be classified as an employer. Some U.S. labor regulators have sided with the union in filings made before the NLRB. In September, Amazon boosted pay for the drivers amid the growing pressure.

A judge declined Wednesday to throw out statements made by a man charged with killing seven people at an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago in 2022.

Robert Crimo III willingly waived his right to remain silent while speaking to police, and there was no “coercion, deceit or intimidation” to prevent him from talking to a lawyer, Lake County Judge Victoria Rossetti said.

Crimo’s defense team had argued that a lawyer hired by his family was at the police station following the shooting but that investigators wouldn’t let them meet, a violation of constitutional rights.

The judge, however, noted that video shows Crimo saying he didn’t want to stop the police interview to speak to a lawyer. Rossetti described the interview as “conversational and non-threatening with an informal and relaxed atmosphere.”

“I’ve heard them a million times,” Crimo said at one point about his rights.

Authorities have said Crimo, 24, confessed to the Highland Park shooting. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, including multiple first-degree murder counts. Jury selection in the trial is scheduled to start Feb. 24.

Dozens of people were wounded, including an 8-year-old boy who was left partially paralyzed. There was panic as families fled the parade through downtown Highland Park, a suburb of about 30,000 people near Lake Michigan.

Those killed in the attack were Katherine Goldstein, 64; Jacquelyn Sundheim, 63; Stephen Straus, 88; Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78; Eduardo Uvaldo, 69; and married couple Kevin McCarthy, 37, and Irina McCarthy, 35.

An Indiana man convicted in the 1997 killings of his brother and three other people is set to receive a lethal injection by early Wednesday in the state’s first execution in 15 years, without any independent witness present under the state’s laws shielding information about the death penalty.

Joseph Corcoran, 49, has been on death row since 1999, the year he was convicted in the shootings of his brother, James Corcoran, 30; his sister’s fianc窠Robert Scott Turner, 32; and two other men: Timothy G. Bricker, 30, and Douglas A. Stillwell, 30.

Indiana is one of only two states, along with Wyoming, that do not allow members of the press to witness state executions, according to a recent report by the Death Penalty Information Center.

Barring last-minute court action or intervention by Gov. Eric Holcomb, Corcoran is set to be put to death before sunrise Wednesday at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, according to state officials. Last summer, the governor announced the resumption of state executions after a yearslong hiatus marked by a scarcity of lethal injection drugs nationwide.

Indiana has provided few details about the process, including a specific execution time. Indiana prison officials only provided photos of the execution chamber, showing a space that looks like a sparse operating room with a gurney, bright fluorescent lighting, a floor drain and interior windows to an adjacent viewing room.

According to Indiana law, the only people allowed to be present are the prison warden, those selected to assist in the execution, the prison physician, one additional physician, the condemned person’s spiritual adviser and the prison chaplain.

Up to five friends or relatives of the person being executed and up to eight relatives of the victims of the crime are allowed to view the process.

Corcoran’s attorneys have fought the death penalty sentence for years, arguing that Corcoran is severely mentally ill, which affects his ability to understand and make decisions. Corcoran exhausted his federal appeals in 2016. Earlier this month, his attorneys asked the Indiana Supreme Court to stop his execution but the request was denied.

However, attorneys say since the justices were split 3-2 that signals there’s a chance.

“Given that it is a close case, it shouldn’t be rushed through,” said defense attorney Larry Komp. “He’s so extremely mentally ill. We think he’s irrational. We’ve never had a fair process.”

Attorneys have said one sign of Corcoran’s mental illness includes a handwritten affidavit that he wrote to the justices this month saying he was done litigating his case.

“I am guilty of the crime I was convicted of, and accept the findings of all the appellate courts,” he wrote.

According to court records, before Corcoran fatally shot the four victims in July 1997, he was stressed because his sister’s forthcoming marriage to Turner would necessitate moving out of the Fort Wayne, Indiana, home he shared with his brother and sister.

Corcoran awoke to hear his brother and others downstairs talking about him, loaded his rifle and then shot all four men, records show. While jailed, Corcoran reportedly bragged about fatally shooting his parents in 1992 in northern Indiana’s Steuben County. He was charged in their killings but acquitted.

If Corcoran is put to death as scheduled, it will be the state’s first execution since 2009. In that time, 13 executions were carried out in Indiana but those were initiated and performed by federal officials in 2020 and 2021 at a federal prison in Terre Haute.

Indiana’s last state execution was in 2009 when Matthew Wrinkles was put to death for killing his wife, her brother and sister-in-law in 1994.

State officials have said they couldn’t continue executions because a combination of drugs used in lethal injections had become unavailable.

Two people are dead and multiple people are injured after a shooting at a Christian school in Wisconsin, police said. Police say the shooter, a juvenile was found dead inside the school.

The shooting occurred at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, the state capital, police said.

“This remains an active and ongoing investigation,” Madison police said in a statement. “More information will be released as it is available. We currently need people to avoid the area.”

Police had blocked off roads around the school Monday afternoon.

Agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have responded to the scene to assist local law enforcement.

Abundant Life Christian School is nondenominational and has about 390 students, from kindergarten through high school, according to its website. Stay tuned to 890 WLS on this developing story.

The NHL is partnering with P-X-P to serve the Deaf community, creating an alternate telecast for the Winter Classic that features analysis in American Sign Language.

The announcement was made Thursday by the league and a company that aims to improve access to ASL in sports.

NHL in ASL made its debut when Florida outlasted Edmonton in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, showing two deaf commentators signing during a game for the first time during a major sports event.

The groundbreaking concept will return — streaming on Max in the United States and Sportsnet+ in Canada — on Dec. 31 when the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues play at Wrigley Field.

“We are proud to continue to demonstrate the league’s commitment to providing a fully immersive and accessible viewing experience that specifically meets the needs of the Deaf community,” said Steve Mayer, the NHL’s chief content officer. “This is an NHL-led production for the Deaf by the Deaf, and we encourage all fans watching at home to tune-in to experience this special telecast.”

Hearing commentators are not heard during the NHL ASL broadcasts, which does include natural sound that would be heard in the arena, such as the officials calling a penalty and skates cutting through ice. Graphics such as a crowd intensity meter that measures crowd noise are also shown.

Closed captioning has been around for more than four decades, but the boxes of text in English do not provide true access to viewers in the Deaf community.

P-X-P chief operating officer Jason Altmann and Noah Blankenship from Denver’s Office of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services will appear on the right side of a split screen during the Winter Classic, just as they did for seven games during the Cup Final.

“The NHL continues to be a sports industry pioneer for Deaf inclusion and accessibility and I am honored to be part of this game-changing initiative,” Altmann said.

New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed a law Monday to prohibit public and school libraries from banning books in the state and to enshrine protections against civil and criminal charges for librarians who comply with the law.

New Jersey becomes the latest Democrat-led state to enact a ban on book bans, joining Illinois and Minnesota. Murphy signed the bill at Princeton’s public library, a short walk from Princeton University’s ivy-draped campus and cast the legislation in the context of Republican-leaning states that have prohibited certain books in recent years.

“It’s the antithesis of all these book banning states that you see,” he said. “I’m incredibly proud to have signed it, but also acknowledge that America — and this is yet another good example — is becoming a patchwork quilt country. It really matters where you live.”

Under the law, public and school libraries are barred from excluding books because of the origin, background, or views of the material or of its authors. Censoring books will also be prohibited solely because a person finds them offensive. The bill permits restriction in the case of “developmentally inappropriate material” for certain age groups. The measure also requires local school boards and the governing bodies of public libraries to set up policies for book curation and the removal of library materials, including a way to address concerns over certain items.

According to the American Library Association, over 4,200 works in school and public libraries were targeted in 2023, a jump from the old record of nearly 2,600 books in 2022. Many challenged books 2023 had LGBTQ+ and racial themes.

Restrictions in some states have increased so much that librarians and administrators worry about lawsuits, hefty fines and even imprisonment if they provide books that others regard as inappropriate. Lawmakers in more than 15 states have introduced bills to impose harsh penalties on libraries or librarians in 2024.

Conservative parents and activists argue that the books are too sexually explicit or otherwise controversial, and are inappropriate, especially for younger readers. National groups such as Moms for Liberty say parents are entitled to more control over books available to their children.

Librarians hailed the measure’s enactment. Karen Grant, president of the New Jersey Association of School Librarians, said the bill recognizes librarians’ professionalism and promotes libraries as a source of information.

“The bill will protect the intellectual freedom of students as well as acknowledge that school libraries are centers for voluntary inquiry, fostering students’ growth and development,” Grant said.

Martha Hickson, a retired librarian, spoke Monday alongside Murphy about how parents first suggested her book collections contained pedophilia and pornography during a school board meeting in 2021. She watched the livestream in horror as they objected that the novel “Lawn Boy” and illustrated memoir “Gender Queer” were available to students and suggested she could be criminally liable.

She said shortly before receiving a pen Murphy used to sign the bill that it was time to celebrate after three years of harassment.

“I’m thrilled,” she said. “After more than three years of harassment, this legislation is a relief to readers and librarians.”

The measure is set to take effect in a year, but the state education commissioner and state librarian are authorized to begin taking steps to implement the law.