All posts tagged "Nationalsecurity"

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s top adviser at the White House on the Western Hemisphere is set to depart his post in mid-March, a National Security Council official told McClatchy and the Miami Herald. Juan Gonzalez, special assistant to the president and senior director for the Western Hemisphere, advocated for direct talks with Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and for avoiding U.S. military involvement in Haiti throughout his tenure at the White House. A national security official noted that Gonzalez, who previously advised Biden on Latin America during his time as vice president, was “the pr......

A heavy-lift helicopter with five Marines headed from Nevada to an air base in California Tuesday night has gone missing, authorities said early Wednesday morning. The helicopter, a CH-53E Super Stallion, had departed from Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, just outside Las Vegas, Nev. and it was bound to the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, in San Diego, Calif., according to a statement from the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. When the aircraft was reported “overdue” in the early hours of Wednesday, the Marines initiated a search for the missing chopper. The Super Stallion was last seen over......

At least four people were dead and others missing after a boat ferrying more than a dozen people sank off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula near Cancun, according to reports. The Goddess of the Sea — or La Diosa del Mar — was journeying from the resort island of Isla Mujeres to nearby Puerto Juárez when the incident occurred on Monday shortly after 6 p.m. Officials told ABC News the vessel caught a strong sea swell and started taking on water in the moments before it went down. A total of 19 people — 16 tourists and three crew members — were aboard at the time. Two adult males, one adult female and o......

COLUMBIA, S.C. — For the second time in little more than a week a drill sergeant was found dead at Fort Jackson, the U.S. Army said Monday. The body of Staff Sgt. Zachary L. Melton, a 30-year-old with the 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, was discovered on Saturday at Fort Jackson, Army officials said in a news release. After he failed to report to work, an unresponsive Melton was found in his vehicle, according to the release. The Directorate of Emergency Services were called, and Emergency Medical Services personnel pronounced Melton dead shortly after arriving, officials said. On Dec. ......

The Senate on Thursday voted to confirm Kansan Richard Federico to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, filling a seat that has been vacant for nearly two years. Federico, who has served as a federal public defender in Kansas since 2017, was nominated by President Joe Biden in July. He also worked as a military judge in the Navy Reserve Trial Judiciary and served in the Navy’s JAG corps both as a prosecutor and as a defense attorney. “I appreciated the opportunity to meet with him in Kansas and Washington, D.C., to discuss his commitment to practice judicial restraint by rel......

DETROIT — A west Michigan state legislator gave a tribute Friday to two men who were recently acquitted in the failed plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. State Rep. Rachelle Smit, a Republican, gave a legislative tribute to twin brothers William and Michael Null, following their mid-September acquittal by an Antrim County jury on charges of allegedly providing support for a terrorist act and a weapon charge in connection to failed plots to kidnap the Democratic governor. Whitmer's office called the tribute "disturbing" and said it would "embolden radical extremists." Tom Siver, Micha......