Johnston man killed in wrong-way, head-on Highway 30 crash
The Story County Sheriff's Office said it responded to a crash at Highway 30 and Sand Hill Trail at 11:30 p.m. Officials say the investigation into the collision indicates a Jeep Renegade driven by 41-year-old Ashley Taylor was traveling westbound in the eastbound lanes of Highway 30 when it struck a Chevy Impala head-on.
Iowa teen killed in head-on crash in Jefferson County
The driver of the Impala, 26-year-old Christian Royston, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Taylor was transported to a Des Moines hospital by air ambulance. The SCSO said she suffered serious injuries in the crash.
The crash investigation is ongoing.
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San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Washington homeless encampments clear out in anticipation of Trump crackdown
WASHINGTON (AP) — National Guard troops and Humvees guarded some Washington landmarks Thursday and advocacy organizations helped clear homeless encampments in advance of an anticipated crackdown as President Donald Trump's takeover of city police ramped up. The multiagency flood of federal law enforcement ordered by the Republican president to tackle crime in the nation's capital has become increasingly high profile, with officers setting up a checkpoint Wednesday night in one of D.C.'s popular nightlife areas, drawing protests. The White House said 45 arrests were made Wednesday night, including 29 arrests of people living in the country illegally, including for distribution or possession of drugs, carrying a concealed weapon and assaulting a federal officer. Troops were stationed outside the Union Station transportation hub as the 800 Guard members who have been activated by Trump start in on missions that include monument security, community safety patrols and beautification efforts, the Pentagon said. 'They will remain until law and order has been restored in the District as determined by the president, standing as the gatekeepers of our great nation's capital,' Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said. 'The National Guard is uniquely qualified for this mission as a community-based force with strong local ties and disciplined training.' Wilson said the troops won't be armed and declined to give more details on what the safety patrols or beautification efforts would entail or how many Guard members have already been sent out on the streets. National Guard Major Micah Maxwell said troops will assist law enforcement in a variety of roles, including traffic control posts and crowd control. The Guard members have been trained in deescalation tactics and crowd control equipment, Maxwell said. The White House said Thursday that Guard members aren't making arrests but are 'protecting federal assets, providing a safe environment for law enforcement officers to make arrests, and deterring violent crime with a visible law enforcement presence.' Meanwhile, about a dozen unhoused residents in Washington packed up their belongings with help from volunteers from some city agencies. Items largely were not forcibly thrown out by law enforcement, but a garbage truck idled nearby. Several protesters held signs close by, some critical of the Trump administration. Once the residents had left, a construction vehicle from a city agency cleared through the remains of the tents. Advocates expected law enforcement officers to fan out across D.C. later Thursday to take down any remaining homeless encampments. For two days, small groups of federal officers have been visible in scattered parts of the city. But more were present in high-profile locations Wednesday night, and troops were expected to start doing more missions Thursday. Agents from Homeland Security Investigations have patrolled the popular U Street corridor, while Drug Enforcement Administration officers were seen on the National Mall, with Guard members parked nearby. DEA agents also joined Metropolitan Police Department officers on patrol in the Navy Yard neighborhood, while FBI agents stood along the heavily trafficked Massachusetts Avenue.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump escalates military and law enforcement presence — at home and abroad
The News President Donald Trump is engaging the US military and federal law enforcement on multiple new fronts as a legal challenge to his deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles keeps moving ahead. Trump told reporters Monday that he would invoke a provision of the DC Home Rule Act that allows him to put the city's police department 'under direct federal control.' The president also announced he would deploy the National Guard to the nation's capital, days after federal law enforcement agencies stepped up their presence. That follows reports on Friday that he's ordered the Pentagon to draw up plans for using military force against drug cartels in Latin America — making good on a long list of public promises and early moves that pointed in that direction. Politically speaking, Trump's actions against the cartels and in DC share a common theme: his desire to replicate his stringent policies at the southern border, where about 8,500 members of the military were assisting with security operations as of last month. 'We're going to put it in control very quickly, just like we did on the southern border,' Trump told reporters on Monday, referring to his latest military push in DC aimed at combatting crime. 'We're starting very strongly with DC, and we're going to clean it up real quick, very quickly, as they say,' he added. Separately, Trump's National Guard deployment in California to respond to protests against escalating immigration raids largely wound down in late July but has prompted a lawsuit from Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom that's scheduled to come before a federal judge on Monday. In a statement, White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told Semafor that Trump's 'top priority is protecting the homeland,' adding that designating various cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations plays into that priority. The White House declined to comment further on the multi-front escalation of military and law enforcement. Know More Trump's movement of military and federal law enforcement personnel into DC, citing a need to crack down on crime after an assault on a former Department of Government Efficiency staffer, is just the latest criticism he's aimed at Democratic-run cities for what he views as a failure to appropriately police their own streets. He openly mused at a campaign rally last year about a possible attempt to assert federal control over the capital, and he raised the topic again at a Cabinet meeting last month. US military action against cartels is another topic Trump openly discussed on the campaign trail. He also entertained it during his first term, when he wondered privately about the idea of launching missiles into Mexico to 'destroy' drug labs, as then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper revealed in a memoir. 'The drug cartels are waging war on America, and it's now time for America to wage war on the cartels,' Trump said in a 2023 Truth Social video decrying the Biden administration's border policy. He added that his policy as president would be to dismantle cartels 'just as we took down ISIS' in the Middle East. On his first day in office, Trump signed an order that groups involved in transnational drug trade be formally designated as terrorists. The Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua and Mexico-based Sinaloa cartel were designated in February, and the Venezuela-based Cartel de los Soles was sanctioned as a terrorist group late last month. Cartel de los Soles, according to the Treasury Department, is 'headed by' Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan leader, whom the Trump administration this week boosted the bounty on to a record $50 million. For Trump's allies, his potential use of military resources to combat the cartels are part of what one person close to the White House called a drive to 'protect our sovereignty.' 'There's obviously going to be a narrative … that Trump is unleashing his stormtroopers onto the world and yada yada yada, abuse of power, this is him trying to be a dictator,' this person added. 'From our perspective, couldn't be further from the truth — in the sense that the president is not going to allow the disarray and the ongoing chaos to continue across our country.' A second person close to the White House said the doubling of the bounty on the Venezuelan leader 'makes clear that the Maduro regime is not a government but a criminal syndicate and terror group,' describing the Venezuelan regime as 'a cartel' itself. Maduro has denied any role in drug cartel operations, and his foreign minister wrote on Facebook last week that the boosted bounty for his arrest was 'the most ridiculous smokescreen we've ever seen.' A senior State Department official did not directly answer whether the higher bounty on Maduro, coupled with the administration's Pentagon cartels announcement, equates to more robust support for regime change in Venezuela. 'The Trump admin approach has been consistent,' the senior State Department official said. 'The latest announcement follows Treasury's measure from last month moving to designate Cartel de los Soles as a specially designated global terrorist.' The Trump administration did not notify Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the anti-cartel directive, an aide said, nor were Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee notified. Republicans did not have an immediate comment about the matter. Room for Disagreement Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded to Trump's reported anti-cartel directive by, as she did earlier this year, vowing that any US military presence in her country was 'ruled out.' 'The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military,' she said. 'We cooperate, we coordinate; but there won't be an invasion.' Shelby's view For those who closely followed Trump's rallies and announcements on the campaign trail, none of what he's done in DC or on Latin America policy is a surprise: He ran (successfully) on a 'law-and-order' message, even promising to 'surge federal prosecutors and the National Guard into high-crime communities.' Perhaps the most notable aspect of his reported directive on military force against the cartels, in fact, was the relative lack of Democratic criticism in response to it — the opposition party appears to see more vulnerability in his tax bill and his approach to the Jeffrey Epstein case. It's yet another example of how emboldened Trump is when it comes to crime and border policy this term. He's acting on proposals he only mused about when he first got into office. Notable Trump advisers are cool to the idea of a physical troop presence to operate against the cartels, focusing their evaluations on naval and drone strikes, the Washington Post reported. Trump also wants to , the infamous prison — now a tourist site — in the San Francisco Bay.
The Hill
5 hours ago
- The Hill
The Venezuelan dictator's days are numbered
Nicolás Maduro, the dictator of Venezuela, is on the ropes. President Trump has directed the Pentagon to prepare options for the possible use of military force against drug cartels. The Cartel de los Soles, linked to the Venezuelan government, was designated as a foreign terrorist organization. And a $50 million reward — the highest in U.S. history — was announced for the capture of Maduro himself. The reward on Maduro's head is not just a random number, but a sign of the weight the Trump administration places on the Chavista tyranny. Numbers matter. The reward for Osama Bin Laden was $25 million and was$30 million for Saddam Hussein's sons. In the case of Mexican drug lords, 'El Chapo' Guzmán reached $5 million and Rafael Caro Quintero $20 million. All of these men were arrested or assassinated. Rewards matter and determine the fate of many terrorists and tyrants. Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged the direct connection between Maduro's regime and terrorist organizations such as the Cartel de los Soles and Tren de Aragua. Rubio also emphasized that this designation provides 'legal authority to target them in ways you can't if they're just a bunch of criminals. It's no longer a law enforcement issue. It has become a national security issue. It allows us to now target what they're operating and to use other elements of American power, intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, whatever.' But Maduro isn't just a threat in terms of international drug trafficking. He is a threat to Venezuelans themselves. According to United Nations reports, the government of Venezuela continues to engage in actions constituting crimes against humanity, including persecution of political leaders, imprisonment of civic rights defenders and severe deprivation of physical liberty, and other crimes. María Corina Machado, Venezuela's main opposition leader, said Maduro poses a threat to hemispheric security. Indeed, Venezuela represents the most urgent crisis in the Western Hemisphere, and its final resolution is everyone's responsibility. Machado also noted that Maduro's criminal regime continues to repress and violate human rights, implementing practices that constitute state terrorism, according to the Inter American Commission of Human Rights. The latest signals issued by the U.S. are unwavering. This doesn't sound like a warning, but like a warrant. The days of sanctions and statements are over in the face of a regime that seems indifferent and immovable. In 1989, the U.S. implemented Operation Just Cause, invading Panama in order to extract narco-dictator Manuel Noriega and to recognize the true winner of that country's presidential elections. Maduro in Venezuela, like Noriega before him, has become a vociferous narco-dictator who opposes the U.S. But in 2025, it is no longer necessary to have a massive deployment of troops on the ground. The recent U.S. airstrikes in Iran known as Operation Midnight Hammer demonstrated that other resources are available to change the course of history. Very specific actions and precise objectives can help bring about regime change from within, or at least alter the status quo. After nearly 25 years of the Chavista regime, the situation in Venezuela is worsening every day. International collaboration is needed to end a tragedy that represents a clear and present danger to Latin America and the U.S. What happens in Venezuela will have an extraordinary impact on preventing, persuading and weakening other dictatorships in the Western Hemisphere. Peace through strength is urgently needed to renew and recover U.S. leadership as a guarantor and defender of security, democracy and freedom for all. Arturo McFields is an exiled journalist, former Nicaraguan ambassador to the Organization of American States, and a former member of the Norwegian Peace Corps. He is an alumnus of the National Defense University's Security and Defense Seminar and the Harvard Leadership course.
