Latest news with #Bolden
CBS News
6 days ago
- Business
- CBS News
NYC subway system's continued modernization the focus of latest MTA board meeting
Metropolitan Transportation Authority board members convened for their monthly meetings on Wednesday, just a day after the transit agency achieved what it considers a win in the ongoing congestion pricing battle with the federal government. CBS News New York has learned a big focus for the board is on the continued push to modernize the system, with members describing the latest round of work as The stuff you can't see. That includes upgrades to its camera systems, cable improvements that allow for better communication for employees, plus improvements to public announcements, emergency systems and facilities. It's all part of an effort that is collectively costing the MTA $3 billion. Another notable mention is expanded cell service. Following the rollout of the initiative on the Times Square Shuttle last year, the current capital program will pay for the installation of service on a portion of the tunnels on the 4 and 5 lines between Manhattan and Brooklyn and major sections on the G line between Court Street and Hoyt Street. "We came to thew board with our public-private partnership with Bolden, formerly known as Transit Wireless, who will be providing cell service to our customers in our tunnels," a board member said. "As part of this deal, which C&D Planning negotiated, we expect $600 million of infrastructure development at no cost to the MTA or our customers." Judge rules in MTA's favor on congestion pricing The infrastructure project announcements come as a federal judge in New York sided with the MTA to keep the congestion pricing tolls on. On Tuesday, Judge Lewis Liman granted the state's request for a temporary restraining order, barring the feds from withholding funding, at least until the two sides meet again in court on June 9. The hearing came after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy gave New York multiple deadlines to stop the program. The most recent passed on May 21. Duffy warned funding would be withheld for projects in the city, like the Second Avenue Subway, and even in other parts of the state. After last week's deadline came and went, the DOT said it could implement "compliance actions" as soon as May 28. Liman, however, had already decided on previous congestion pricing cases that the tolling plan is legal. On Tuesday, he noted the MTA "showed a likelihood of success" in its case to keep the plan going, and said the state "would suffer irreparable harm" on things like transportation projects and bond ratings if the feds acted on their threat to pull federal funding starting May 28.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
JFK'S SECRET SERVICE AGENT, ABRAHAM BOLDEN, FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN ON WHITE HOUSE DETAIL, FINALLY TESTIFIES BEFORE JFK ASSASSINATION CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE -- RECEIVES APOLOGY FROM COMMITTEE CHAIR REP. LUNA -- HAD BEEN HONORED LAST YEAR BY CAPA WITH 'PROFILE IN COURAGE' AWARD
WASHINGTON, May 23, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Abraham Bolden, 90, the first African American U.S. Secret Service agent in U.S. history appointed to the White House Detail, finally got his chance to testify before a Congressional sub-committee last Tuesday remotely from his home in Chicago. Bolden, who was personally appointed by President Kennedy, had thwarted a plot to assassinate JFK in Chicago in November 1963, just three weeks before the assassination in Dallas. The task force, Chaired by Rep. Anna P. Luna of Florida, heard former agent Bolden tell of Secret Service breakdowns in procedure. Bolden, who sought to testify before the Warren Commission was intercepted and charged with crimes he didn't commit. He served three years in prison before being released and finally, after decades, granted a "Full and Unconditional Pardon" by President Joseph R. Biden on April 26, 2022. In 1963, Bolden, believing the earlier attempt on JFK's life was important evidence, made persistent complaints which led to the arrest of alleged assailants and confiscation of weapons in early November of 1963, just three weeks prior to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. Bolden, who was honored last year with the "Profile in Courage" award by CAPA (Citizens Against Political Assassinations), attempted to testify before the Warren Commission in 1964 but was immediately silenced on false charges and sent to prison as part of the post-assassination cover-up. After spending three years in prison on trumped up charges, Bolden wrote a book, "The Echo of Dealey Plaza" and was released from prison. For more than a-half century Bolden, with the support of CAPA's founder, the late Dr. Cyril Wecht and many supporters, sought to clear his name. After Bolden's emotional testimony and questions from the members of the House sub-committee, chaired by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, closed stating, "I'd like to honor Abraham W. Bolden Sr., the first African American agent," she said. "Bolden bravely spoke out about the cover-up" Luna continued. "For telling the truth, he was unjustly convicted, labeled clinically insane, stripped of his Constitutional rights and incarcerated -- an appalling abuse of power meant to silence his courage. I want to offer him a formal government apology for the injustice he endured and thank him for his loyal service to our nation. His legacy is one of integrity, resilience and truth." Contact: Glenda de Vaney - Phone: (619) 420-5612 For Media Information contact: Stephen Jaffe: Jaffe & Co.: 9663 Santa Monica Blvd., Ste. 633 | Beverly Hills, CA 90210Tel. (310) 275-7327 View original content: SOURCE Citizens Against Political Assassinations (CAPA) Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
New York Post
21-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
First black member of Secret Service finally testifies to JFK committee, details Chicago assassination plot
The man John F. Kennedy called 'the Jackie Robinson' of the Secret Service finally got to testify before a Congressional committee Tuesday — alleging fellow agents were often drunk on the job and there was a so-called 'Chicago plot' to kill the president before his 1963 assassination in Dallas. His head bowed, Abraham Bolden, 90, spoke with difficulty into a microphone when he addressed the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform by Zoom from his home in Chicago. The committee is probing the assassination of the president. But the audio cut off immediately as Bolden began to speak, effectively muting his testimony on the live stream. Advertisement 5 Abraham Bolden speaks into a microphone during his ZOOM testimony during a Congressional committee investigating the assassination of President Kennedy. 'On June 6, 1961, I walked into history,' said Bolden, according to a transcript obtained by The Post. 'I was assigned to the White House detail in Washington, DC to assist in protecting the life of the president. And I never met a more human and fair-minded person than President Kennedy.' The Trump administration released tens of thousands of previously classified documents with respect to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, his younger brother Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Advertisement In the past, Bolden claimed government agents discredited him by arresting him on trumped up charges of bribery in order to prevent him from speaking to the federal Warren Commission, headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren to investigate the shooting in Dallas on November 22, 1963. In addition to Bolden, the committee heard from Don Curtis, a physician at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas who was on the team that tried to save the president's life. In his opening statement he said that the Warren Commission did not interview him or the other doctors, and that the bullet wounds he observed on Kennedy were not consistent with the version of a lone gunman that the Warren Commission reported. Four other witnesses also gave testimony during the second hearing of the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, chaired by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), which begins Tuesday. Advertisement 5 Abraham Bolden has long claimed that the Secret Service agents who were assigned to protect John Kennedy were often drunk and ignored threats to the president's life. TNS Douglas Horne, a former Assassination Records Review staff member, said medical records and autopsy photos are missing as are other key documents. Bolden, a former highway patrolman and Chicago-based Secret Service agent, was the first black member of the Secret Service, personally hired by Kennedy to be part of his presidential detail. He met the former president during the former president's stop in Chicago in 1961 while he was guarding a basement restroom at the McCormick Place banquet hall. Advertisement 5 John F. Kennedy was shot while he made a campaign stop in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Bettmann Archive 'He was serious about giving everyone equal opportunity,' Bolden said of Kennedy in a 2008 TV interview. 'He never walked by me once that he didn't strike up a conversation.' In his 2008 book, 'The Echo from Dealey Plaza: The True Story of the First African American on the White House Secret Service Detail and His Quest for Justice After the Assassination of JFK,' Bolden wrote about the racism he encountered from other agents on the president's team, claiming they were often drunk on the job. In his testimony Tuesday, he spoke about overhearing an angry 1963 meeting between Kennedy and his vice president Lyndon Johnson in the Oval Office in which Johnson accused Kennedy of dropping him from his run for president the following year, warning the president to ''better stop f—king with me.'' 'He was redder than a sack of beets,' Bolden said, referring to Johnson when he stormed out of the Oval Office. He also outlined a report he heard at a staff meeting about threats to kill Kennedy with 'a high-powered rifle' at an Army-Air Force footbal game in Chicago on November 2, nearly three weeks before he was killed. 'Information that I had revealed was that some Cuban exiles were trying to assassinate the president when he came to Chicago,' Bolden said, adding that he knew from one of the agency's weekly meetings that there had been threats against the president at the campaign stop in Dallas where was shot dead. 5 Experts addressed a Congressional committee Tuesday about the assassination of President Kennedy. Bettmann Archive Advertisement 'That information came to me every Wednesday morning when we got a rundown in what was happening in all the other districts,' said Bolden in the interview. In 1964, Bolden was fired from the Secret Service after being charged with trying to sell government secrets for a $50,000 bribe. He denied the allegations, saying that he was framed for trying to expose corruption within the agency. Although his first trial ended in a hung jury, Bolden was convicted at his second trial and sentenced to 15 years, even after some witnesses had said they had been pressured into lying to prosecutors. At the time, the father of three gave piano recitals to raise money for his legal defense 5 Abraham Bolden arriving for his trial in Chicago in 1964. He claims that government agents tried to keep him from testifying about the Secret Service by convicting him on trumped-up charges. TNS Advertisement Bolden served 39 months in federal prison, with a two-and-a-half year probation. During his time in prison, Mark Lane, an attorney who wrote a bombshell book in 1966 –'Rush to Judgment' — that alleged that Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, could not have acted alone, came to visit him in prison, he said. Bolden said that while he was in prison, he was drugged by guards and transferred to the 'psychiatry division' so that he wouldn't talk. 'They tried to fill me with drugs,' he said. He was pardoned by President Biden in 2022. 'Very often, as you people know, justice takes a long time,' he told the committee, adding that he was grateful to Biden for the pardon. 'Carry on, my brothers and sisters. Carry on this investigation. I truly thank you for giving me a chance to tell my story day because not too many years from now, the only thing in my pockets will be dirt. But the truth cannot die.'
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Yahoo
Jersey City man's conviction overturned in alleged Facebook revenge killing
A New Jersey man's conviction for allegedly killing another man in revenge over a Facebook video was overturned Thursday by an appeals court. Darius Bolden, now 39, had been sentenced to 45 years behind bars for the murder of Jason Dunbar on Aug. 27, 2019, in Jersey City. Dunbar, 35, was killed shortly after a video of him fighting Bolden and knocking him down circulated on Facebook, according to prosecutors. Investigators said Bolden killed Dunbar in retaliation. However, a state appeals court determined police interrogation footage was improperly used at Bolden's trial. The judges additionally ruled the trial included improper remarks from the prosecutor and unauthenticated video evidence. The appeal centered around police officers' statements in recorded interrogations of Bolden, in which they spoke authoritatively about disputed information. 'Although the disputed statements may be viewed as proper interrogation techniques, they are not proper statements for presentation to the jury in an unredacted statement,' the appeals judges wrote. The court reversed Bolden's convictions on first-degree murder and two second-degree weapons charges. However, a separate conviction for a third-degree drug charge remains in place, and was not part of the appeal, according to While prosecutors could decide to retry the case, the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office has not publicly commented on the court's decision.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Yahoo
Jersey City man's conviction overturned in alleged Facebook revenge killing
A New Jersey man's conviction for allegedly killing another man in revenge over a Facebook video was overturned Thursday by an appeals court. Darius Bolden, now 39, had been sentenced to 45 years behind bars for the murder of Jason Dunbar on Aug. 27, 2019, in Jersey City. Dunbar, 35, was killed shortly after a video of him fighting Bolden and knocking him down circulated on Facebook, according to prosecutors. Investigators said Bolden killed Dunbar in retaliation. However, a state appeals court determined police interrogation footage was improperly used at Bolden's trial. The judges additionally ruled the trial included improper remarks from the prosecutor and unauthenticated video evidence. The appeal centered around police officers' statements in recorded interrogations of Bolden, in which they spoke authoritatively about disputed information. 'Although the disputed statements may be viewed as proper interrogation techniques, they are not proper statements for presentation to the jury in an unredacted statement,' the appeals judges wrote. The court reversed Bolden's convictions on first-degree murder and two second-degree weapons charges. However, a separate conviction for a third-degree drug charge remains in place, and was not part of the appeal, according to While prosecutors could decide to retry the case, the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office has not publicly commented on the court's decision.
