Latest news with #FOIA
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Caves complicate search for escaped Arkansas inmate
RELATED VIDEO: Escaped Arkansas inmate started tumultuous law enforcement career in Fayetteville (May 29, 2025) GATEWAY, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — The manhunt for escaped Arkansas inmate Grant Hardin takes officials through the eroded plateaus of the Ozarks — and may extend to the area's many caves. The search for Hardin continues after his escape from North Central Unit in Calico Rock on May 25, with authorities using dogs, drones and helicopters. The topography of the Ozarks already complicates efforts, but officials remain alert to potential threats that may lie beneath the surface. 'Caves have definitely been a source of concern and a point of emphasis,' Arkansas Department of Corrections spokesperson Rand Champion told the Associated Press. The Natural State is home to close to 2,000 documented caves. However, most of these caves remain absent from public maps. 'Cave locations tend to be fairly well-guarded,' University of Arkansas geosciences professor Matt Covington told KNWA/FOX24. 'Most landowners don't want the locations of their caves publicly available… Cavers also tend to be pretty secretive when it comes to locations, because caves are a fragile environment that is easy to damage if you don't have the appropriate skill set.' Former Washington Co. Sheriff recalls time working as Grant Hardin's Lieutenant The specific locations of significant caves fall under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). However, whether access to confidential cave information is granted or denied is entirely up to the authorized officer's discretion and cannot be appealed or reviewed administratively. Covington said the graphic below—created by Tennessee geographer Chuck Sutherland using data from the Association for Arkansas Cave Studies Inc.—are one of the 'best' visualizations currently available to the public. To view Sutherland's other graphics, including those for neighboring states, click here. Many caves in Arkansas, aside from the well-known ones, have small, hard-to-find entrances. With public cave maps virtually non-existent and knowledge of the caves limited to professionals, landowners and the government, that leaves one last group who knows their locations: locals like Hardin. Pea Ridge cafe owner Darla Nix told the AP that Hardin 'knows where the caves are.' Nix also described Hardin as a 'survivor' and recalls him being 'very, very smart.' One FBI archive article details how the terrain of western North Carolina, comparable to that of northern Arkansas, allowed bomber Eric Rudolph to successfully hide for years. Rudolph, an experienced outdoorsman, evaded capture by using remote cabins and hidden caves during a five-year manhunt that ended in 2003, according to the archive. Cave expert Michael Ray Taylor told the AP that while it's possible to hide in these caves for long periods, the need to leave for supplies increases the risk of discovery. Newton County: 299 Stone County: 138 Madison County: 138 Carroll County: 135 Washington County: 134 Benton County: 112 Searcy County: 89 Marion County: 78 Boone County: 69 Izard County: 68 Crawford County: 62 Baxter County: 35 Independance County: 35 Sharp County: 10 Lawerence County: 7 Pope County: 6 Randolph County: 5 Fulton County: 3 Van Buren County: 1The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBS News
3 days ago
- General
- CBS News
Former Dolton mayor Tiffany Henyard could be jailed if she doesn't show up to court Friday
Tiffany Henyard could be jailed if she doesn't show up to court Friday Tiffany Henyard could be jailed if she doesn't show up to court Friday Tiffany Henyard could be jailed if she doesn't show up to court Friday Former Dolton mayor Tiffany Henyard could is due in court on Friday, and could be put in jail if she fails to show up. Henyard is due in court for failing to produce records in a lawsuit against her and the village over documents she hasn't handed over as part of a Freedom of Information Act request. A judge previously said Henyard could be fined $1,000 a day if she doesn't give the documents to the plaintiff's lawyer. If Henyard doesn't show up to court Friday, she could be thrown in jail. Henyard is the subject of an expanded federal investigation into the finances and spending in south suburban Dolton and how taxpayer money was spent in neighboring Thornton Township, where she was the supervisor. She is also being sued by Jedidiah Brown, who accuses Henyard and several other people of attacking him during a brawl that erupted at a Thornton Township board meeting in late January.
Bloomberg
3 days ago
- General
- Bloomberg
Document Shows How FBI Handled Background Checks for Trump Appointees
Welcome back to FOIA Files! Well, you can now add the State Department to the growing number of agencies with FOIA operations ravaged by the Trump administration's cuts across the federal government. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security has prohibited its FOIA officers from producing documents responsive to requests filed this year until it clears out its (extremely long) backlog. And on the document front, I finally obtained a copy of the memorandum of understanding between then-President-elect Donald Trump's 2024 transition team and the Department of Justice related to FBI background checks for his appointees. If you're not already getting FOIA Files in your inbox, sign up here. Before we get to the documents, here's an update on the state of the Freedom of Information Act. The FOIA has taken a serious beating over the past five months. The mass firing of federal workers has hollowed out FOIA offices at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the US Agency for International Development, the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Justice Department and other agencies.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Mahmoud Khalil claims he was detained by Trump admin after right-wing group tipped off ICE and Ted Cruz
There is evidence to 'strongly suggest' that federal officials acted on tips and lobbying from right-wing and pro-Israel advocacy groups to detain Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil in March, according to a Freedom of Information Act request filed Thursday. 'For years, these anti-Palestinian doxxing groups have served as agents of repression, weaponizing inflammatory rhetoric and conflating criticism of Israel with hate speech in order to chill activism for Palestinian rights,' Ayla Kadah, an attorney the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing Khalil as he appeals his case, said in a statement. 'Now, evidence seems to point to the Trump administration colluding with them,' she added. The FOIA request seeks information from federal offices involved in immigration enforcement and investigation, like the FBI and the Departments of State, Justice, and Homeland Security. It accuses federal lawyers of relying on posts from online monitoring groups that claim to be tracking antisemitism, though some critics say the groups engage in unsafe doxxing campaigns. The Independent has contacted these agencies for comment. The FOIA request pays particular attention to the Zionist group Betar USA, and whether its calls to deport students influenced the effort to detain and deport Khalil. The advocacy group is known for publicly naming pro-Palestinian activists on social media and urging their deportation, and has claimed to have shared 'thousands' of targets with the Trump administration. (The administration has not publicly confirmed any contacts with the group.) Betar has also handed out mock pagers to pro-Palestine activists, a seeming reference to the likely Israeli exploding pager operation that killed both Hezbollah fighters and civilians. The FOIA request points to alleged ties between Betar and federal officials. Ross Glick, then the head of the group, has claimed he spoke with Senator Ted Cruz in the days before Khalil's March 8 arrest, as well as briefed Senator John Fetterman and aides for Senator James Lankford. 'I absolutely deny any involvement with this group whatsoever,' Senator Fetterman said in a statement to The Independent. 'I do not support private organizations coming up with deportation lists, and in any event, I would never participate or assist in that.' Betar shared a video of Glick briefly speaking with Fetterman at the Capitol in late 2024. The Independent has contacted the offices of Cruz and Lankford for comment. 'The correlation is clear, and not a coincidence: to date, not a single reported visa revocation and detention of an individual based on pro-Palestine activism occurred absent prior doxxing,' the FOIA request reads. The federal government does not accuse Khalil of breaking any laws; rather, Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked a rarely used, controversial provision of federal law to declare Khalil's activities could harm U.S. foreign policy interests and then stripped his green card. The FOIA request, in part, seeks to probe what kind of information the State Department used from federal officials in reaching this decision. The Independent filed a similar FOIA request shortly after Khalil's arrest, with no response thus far from federal officials. Khalil, who is married to a U.S. citizen and held legal permanent resident status at the time of his arrest, is currently being kept at a detention facility in Louisiana. He is challenging his imprisonment in immigration and federal court. This week, a federal judge in New Jersey held that the administration's decision to revoke Khalil's green card was likely unconstitutional, though the court stopped short of ordering Khalil's release. "The Secretary's determination deserves, and gets the highest respect,' Judge Michael Farbiarz wrote. 'But arbitrary enforcement can also be a danger, when one person is given the job, if his determination veers too far away from the standard set down by Congress. Here, the Secretary's did."
New York Post
4 days ago
- Health
- New York Post
NIH won't renew ‘cruel' drug experiments on beagle puppies — some as young as 8 months old
WASHINGTON — China-led drug tests on hundreds of beagle puppies won't be conducted anymore on the US taxpayers' dime, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) confirmed to The Post on Thursday — but the Defense Department still hasn't copped to partially funding the research deemed 'cruel' by lawmakers and a watchdog group. A $124,200 contract between the NIH and the Beijing-based biotech firm Pharmaron to test pharmaceuticals on the pooches from Sept. 1, 2023, to May 31, 2025, is not being renewed, according to a spokesperson with the public health agency's Office of Extramural Research. The taxpayer watchdog White Coat Waste Project unearthed the contract via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, with documents showing up to 300 beagles — as well as rats and mice — were being tested per week to help understand and treat neurological disorders. Advertisement 3 A $124,200 contract between the NIH and the Chinese biotech firm Pharmaron to test pharmaceuticals on beagles is not being renewed, a rep for the agency's Office of Extramural Research said. via White Coat Waste Project The experiments abided by the Animal Welfare Act and the Public Health Service Policy on Laboratory — but White Coat Waste pointed to the contract discussing how the pups, some as young as eight months, were 'reused' and then 'euthanized' if they suffered organ dysfunction, were infected or became weak. A Defense Department spokesperson previously claimed there was no 'evidence' of the Pentagon contributing taxpayer dollars to the research. Advertisement 'There is no evidence we can find that indicates the Department of Defense funds any related animal research,' a spokesperson said of the experiments in January 2025. 3 The contract stated the NIH's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences 'received a DoD award to specifically fund animal studies delineated in this award.' Obtained via FOIA by White Coat Waste Project (WCW) But the contract stated the NIH's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences 'received a DoD award to specifically fund animal studies delineated in this award.' Reps for the Defense Department did not respond to requests for comment. Advertisement White Coat Waste uncovered the contract as part of an investigation into more than two dozen Chinese labs that had received $2 million-plus in taxpayer funding for animal testing and other experiments. 3 The White Coat Waste Project probed more than two dozen Chinese labs that received $2 million-plus in taxpayer funding for animal testing and other experiments. Grandbrothers – 'We're thrilled that less than 48 hours after the US Navy banned all dog and cat tests following a White Coat Waste campaign, Trump's NIH is now cutting wasteful dog experiments we unearthed in a taxpayer-funded Chinese lab,' said White Coat Waste senior vice president Justin Goodman. 'We're proud of our hard-fought campaign that notched this victory and applaud NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and President Trump for kicking taxpayer-funded canine cruelty in China to the doghouse of history.' Advertisement Staten Island GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) have been among the lawmakers opposing taxpayer-funded animal testing and other potentially risky research in countries of concern, such as China. Pharmaron is one of several 'companies of concern' that had been blacklisted due to their Chinese Communist Party ties from doing official business with US firms, per legislation that passed the House last Congress but was never taken up in the Senate. The Department of Defense's Office of Inspector General audited the Pentagon's funding for overseas gain-of-function research last year and uncovered collaborations with the companies: Pharmaron, WuXi AppTec and Genscript Inc.
