
Judge denies effort by US Rep Cuellar of Texas to move bribery trial to hometown of Laredo
HOUSTON (AP) — A judge on Friday denied an effort by lawyers for U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas to move his trial on federal bribery and conspiracy charges from Houston to his hometown of Laredo, Texas.
During a Zoom court hearing, Chris Flood, one of Cuellar's lawyers, had argued that Houston is more than 300 miles (482 kilometers) from Laredo, where many of the alleged crimes the congressman is accused of committing took place. Flood also pushed back against claims prosecutors would face difficulties trying Cuellar in Laredo, where he is well known.
Federal authorities have charged Cuellar, 69, and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, with accepting thousands of dollars in exchange for the congressman advancing the interests of an Azerbaijan-controlled energy company and a bank in Mexico. Cuellar has said he and his wife are innocent.
Celia Choy, a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Justice Department, argued moving the trial would further delay it and she questioned if an unbiased jury could be picked in Cuellar's hometown.
U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal cited the prominence Cuellar and his wife have in Laredo as well as having a larger jury pool in the Houston area as some of the reasons for not moving the trial to Laredo.
'Houston can handle this case easily, very easily,' Rosenthal said.
The judge also denied a request by Cuellar's attorneys to push back the start of the trial. The trial for Cuellar and his wife is set to begin Sept. 22.
Cuellar and his wife appeared during Friday's Zoom hearing but didn't speak.
Since Cuellar's indictment in April 2024, three people have pleaded guilty in connection with the case: Colin Strother, one of Cuellar's top former aides; Florencio Rendon, a Texas political and business consultant; and Irada Akhoundova, who was director of a Texas affiliate of an Azerbaijan energy company.
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Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

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USA Today
41 minutes ago
- USA Today
Trump just got OK to shrink (or abolish) national monuments
A newly published U.S. Justice Department memo could open a path for President Donald Trump to roll back protections for millions of acres of federal lands and oceans. It has raised alarms among conservation organizations that fear it signals he may be preparing for action. The 50-page legal opinion provides guidance on the Antiquities Act, concluding the president has grounds to abolish two national monuments established earlier this year by President Joe Biden in California. The Justice Department determined an opinion from the U.S. Attorney General nearly a century ago was incorrect. It found Trump has the power to abolish or reduce the size of national monuments established by other presidents. Conservation organizations called the opinion "blatantly politicized" and an attempt to "rewrite over a century of history and long-standing interpretation." They said it threatens more than 13.5 million acres of national monuments. The opinion "lays the groundwork for unravelling national monuments and dismantling the Antiquities Act, a bedrock conservation law that grants presidents authority and discretion to protect lands with historical, cultural and scientific significance," stated the Wilderness Society. Since Trump's 2024 election victory, he has been intently focused on clearing "obstacles" to the exploration and production of energy resources on public lands. On Inauguration Day, the president signed an executive order declaring a national energy emergency. "The integrity and expansion of our Nation's energy infrastructure – from coast to coast – is an immediate and pressing priority for the protection of the United States' national and economic security," it stated. Asked about the legal opinion, White House spokesperson Harrison Fields cited, in a statement, the need to "liberate our federal lands and waters to oil, gas, coal, geothermal, and mineral leasing," Reuters reported. Clears the way for oil, gas, mining interests By executive order, Trump previously directed the Department of the Interior to review oil, gas and mining on public land. In February, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum charged his staff with coming up with an action plan to reduce barriers and offer more land for oil and gas leasing. The Trump administration asked the department to weigh in on whether the president could reverse Biden's January actions, which set aside the Chuckwalla National Monument, more than 600,000 acres south of Joshua Tree National Park, and the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument, which protected 224,000 acres near the Oregon border. The opinion concludes the Antiquities Act, established by Congress in 1906, allows the president to alter previous designations and decide that earlier national monuments, "either never were or no longer are deserving of the Act's protections." Previous presidents have diminished the acreage of monuments, but no president has ever abolished a monument, Reuters reported. Written by Lanora Pettit, a deputy assistant attorney general appointed from the Texas Attorney General's office in January, the opinion concluded that a 1938 U.S. Attorney General's office opinion that has been interpreted as restricting the ability of presidents to undo previous designations was wrong. Interpreting the original direction from Congress to keep the designated parcels confined to the smallest area compatible for care and management, she wrote, could "have the effect of eliminating entirely" parcels previously associated with national monuments. Trump, in his first term, reduced the size of two Utah monuments. He reduced Bears Ears in the southeastern part of the state by 85% and the Grand Staircase-Escalante monument in south-central Utah by half. Biden restored both to their former size. Trump also vowed to remove a ban on drilling in federally managed ocean waters. At a White House event in April, he announced he would open more than 400,000 square miles in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument to commercial fishing. The advocacy group Earthjustice filed suit over that decision in May. What is the Antiquities Act? Congress passed the Antiquities Act and President Theodore Roosevelt signed it into law in 1906. It was the first U.S. law to give legal protection to cultural and natural resources, addressing concerns at the time about the pillaging of native archaeological sites. It authorizes the president to proclaim national monuments on federal lands that have historic and prehistoric structures or other objects of historic or scientific interest, according to the Congressional Research Office. Once a site has been designated a national monument, federal permission is required to conduct archaeological investigations or remove resources from within its boundaries. How has the Antiquities Act been used? Eighteen presidents – nine Democrats and nine Republicans – have established or expanded more than 160 national monuments, according to a news release by a coalition of conservation groups. They include some of the nation's most revered monuments, such as the Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty. The research service reported that until the early days of the Biden administration, President George W. Bush had proclaimed the most monument acreage of any president, mostly in ocean monuments. According to a White House statement in January 2025, Biden surpassed Bush's record by protecting 674 million acres with the Antiquities Act. At least a half dozen presidents have taken actions to reduce the size of national monuments, according to an analysis by Monica Hubbard, a professor at Boise State University, and Erika Allen Wolters, an assistant professor at Oregon State University. Why is the Antiquities Act controversial? U.S. states and Congress have previously argued to revoke or restrict the limits of the president's powers under the Antiquities Act, saying it was intended to be narrow in scope. Opponents say it gives the federal government too much control over the resources within hundreds of thousands of acres of land and ocean and is sometimes inconsistent with other federal laws that require more public involvement. President Donald Trump has cited 'burdensome and ideologically motivated regulations' that limit the use of the nation's natural resources. The Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025" blueprint called for the act to be repealed, saying it permitted emergency actions long before laws were created to protect special federal lands, rivers and endangered species. The foundation argued that Democratic presidents, including Biden, and the Department of Interior have abused the act with "outrageous, unilateral withdrawals from public use" to advance a "radical climate agenda, ostensibly to reduce greenhouse gas emissions." Proponents say it allows presidents to move swiftly to protect vulnerable lands and waters, and it has broad public support due to the benefits of designating a site a monument. What's at stake if Trump acts on the memo? Conservation groups say millions of acres of federal lands with beautiful landscapes, protected Native American locations and resources, protected species and their habitats are at risk if Trump tries to shrink or remove national monuments. In early June, America the Beautiful for All and a coalition of national monuments supporters held rallies to honor and preserve the nation's monuments. June 8 was the 119th anniversary of the Antiquities Act. The National Parks Conservation Association in February identified at least 13 national monuments that could be at risk of losing protection, including the nation's first, Devils Tower in Wyoming, established by Roosevelt in 1906. The association lists national monuments in six states, including Bears Ears in Utah. Designated by President Barack Obama in 2016, Trump reduced its size in December 2017, then Biden restored it. The Wilderness Society has said a Trump executive order aimed at boosting the mining and processing of minerals, and expedited permitting, endangers monuments and "iconic landscapes" across the country. Contributing: Reuters; Eve Chen, USA TODAY; Janet Wilson, USA TODAY Network Dinah Voyles Pulver, a national correspondent for USA TODAY, writes about climate change, violent weather and other news. Reach her at dpulver@ or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X or dinahvp.77 on Signal.


San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
UN nuclear watchdog's board of governors finds Iran isn't complying with its nuclear obligations
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Russia, China and Burkina Faso opposed it, 11 abstained and two did not vote. In the draft resolution seen by The Associated Press, the board of governors renews a call on Iran to provide answers 'without delay' in a long-running investigation into uranium traces found at several locations that Tehran has failed to declare as nuclear sites. Western officials suspect that the uranium traces could provide evidence that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons program until 2003. The resolution was put forward by France, the U.K., Germany and the United States. Iran under pressure as Trump warns of possible airstrikes It wasn't immediately clear where the 'secure location' of Iran's new facility will be. Iran has been digging tunnels in the mountain near its Natanz enrichment facility. Iran also said it would replace its older IR-1 centrifuges at its underground facility at Fordo with advanced IR-6 centrifuges, which enrich uranium much faster. 'Iran's many failures to uphold its obligations since 2019 to provide the Agency with full and timely cooperation regarding undeclared nuclear material and activities at multiple undeclared locations in Iran ... constitutes non-compliance with its obligations under its Safeguards Agreement,' the draft resolution says. Under the so-called safeguards obligations, which are part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran is legally bound to declare all nuclear material and activities and allow IAEA inspectors to verify that none of it is being diverted from peaceful uses. The draft resolution also finds that the IAEA's 'inability ... to provide assurance that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively peaceful gives rise to questions that are within the competence of the United Nations Security Council, as the organ bearing the main responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.' The vote comes at a sensitive time as tensions in the region have been rising, with the U.S. State Department announcing on Wednesday that it is drawing down the presence of people who are not deemed essential to operations in the Middle East. U.S. President Donald Trump has previously said that Israel or the U.S. could carry out airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations failed. The U.S. and Iran have been holding talks on Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program. Oman's foreign minister said earlier Thursday that a sixth round of negotiations will be held in his country on Sunday. The draft resolution makes a direct reference to the U.S.-Iran talks, stressing its 'support for a diplomatic solution to the problems posed by the Iranian nuclear program, including the talks between the United States and Iran, leading to an agreement that addresses all international concerns related to Iran's nuclear activities, encouraging all parties to constructively engage in diplomacy.' Still a chance for Iran to cooperate with IAEA A senior Western diplomat last week described the resolution as a 'serious step,' but added that Western nations are 'not closing the door to diplomacy on this issue.' However, if Iran fails to cooperate, an extraordinary IAEA board meeting will likely be held in the summer, during which another resolution could get passed that will refer the issue to the Security Council, the diplomat said on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the issue with the media. The three European nations have repeatedly threatened in the past to reinstate sanctions that have been lifted under the original 2015 Iran nuclear deal if Iran does not provide 'technically credible' answers to the U.N. nuclear watchdog's questions. The authority to reestablish those sanctions by the complaint of any member of the original 2015 nuclear deal expires in October, putting the West on a clock to exert pressure on Tehran over its program before losing that power. The resolution comes on heels of the IAEA's so-called 'comprehensive report' that was circulated among member states last weekend. In the report, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said that Iran's cooperation with the agency has 'been less than satisfactory' when it comes to uranium traces discovered by agency inspectors at several locations in Iran.

Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Israel says it detained Hamas members during an operation in southern Syria
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Israeli forces conducted an operation in southern Syria to detain several members of Hamas, the military said Thursday. Syria TV, a local station, reported that a force of about 100 Israeli troops stormed the southern Syrian village of Beit Jin near the border with Lebanon and called the names of several people through loud speakers who were detained. Syria TV said one person was shot dead by the Israeli force. The Israeli military said that the detained people were Hamas members who were planning attacks against Israel, and that they were taken to Israel for questioning, adding that its forces also found weapons in the area. The detained people were not identified. Since the fall of President Bashar Assad 's government in early December, Israeli forces have moved into several areas in southern Syria and conducted hundreds of airstrikes throughout the country, destroying much of the assets of the Syrian army. There was no immediate comment from Hamas or Syrian authorities. During a visit to France last month, Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa said that his country is holding indirect talks with Israel to prevent hostilities from getting out of control.