AP News in Brief at 9:04 p.m. EST
Long johns to short sleeves: Rapid thaw follows polar blast
CHICAGO (AP) - In Illinois, temperatures could rise by 80 degrees within days. In Michigan, melting snow and rain and a 17-mile ice jam could lead to flooding. Across the Midwest, the sudden warmth was sure to bring more broken roads and busted water mains.
The polar vortex that brought many cities to a standstill was expected to end with a rapid thaw that experts say could be unprecedented. But the sudden swing from long johns to light jackets and short sleeves could create problems of its own.
"I don't think there's ever been a case where we've seen (such a big) shift in temperatures," in the winter, said Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the Weather Underground firm. "Past record-cold waves have not dissipated this quickly. ... Here we are going right into spring-like temperatures."
On Thursday, the system marched east, spreading arctic conditions over an area from Buffalo to Brooklyn. In western New York, a storm that dumped up to 20 inches of snow (51 centimeters) gave way to subzero temperatures and face-stinging wind chills. In New York City, about 200 firefighters battling a blaze in a commercial building took turns getting warm on buses. The number of deaths that could be blamed on the cold climbed to at least 15.
For the nation's midsection, relief was as close as the weekend.
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US expected to announce treaty withdrawal as soon as Friday
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration is poised to announce Friday that it is withdrawing from a treaty that has been a centerpiece of superpower arms control since the Cold War and whose demise some analysts worry could fuel a new arms race.
An American withdrawal, which has been expected for months, would follow years of unresolved dispute over Russian compliance with the pact, known as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, or INF, treaty. It was the first arms control measure to ban an entire class of weapons: ground-launched cruise missiles with a range between 500 kilometers (310 miles) and 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles). Russia denies that it has been in violation.
U.S. officials also have expressed worry that China, which is not party to the 1987 treaty, is gaining a significant military advantage in Asia by deploying large numbers of missiles with ranges beyond the treaty's limit. Leaving the INF treaty would allow the Trump administration to counter the Chinese, but it's unclear how it would do that.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in early December that Washington would give Moscow 60 days to return to compliance before it gave formal notice of withdrawal, with actual withdrawal taking place six months later. The 60-day deadline expires on Saturday, and the administration is expected to say as early as Friday that efforts to work out a compliance deal have failed and that it would suspend its compliance with the treaty's terms.
The State Department said Pompeo would make a public statement on Friday morning, but it did not mention the topic.
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US border agency says it's made biggest-ever fentanyl bust
PHOENIX (AP) - U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials announced Thursday their biggest fentanyl bust ever, saying they captured nearly 254 pounds (114 kilograms) of the synthetic drug that is helping fueling a national epidemic of fatal opioid overdoses from a secret compartment inside a load of Mexican produce heading into Arizona.
The drug was found hidden Saturday morning in a compartment under the rear floor of a tractor-trailer after a scan during a secondary inspection indicated "some anomalies" in the load, and the agency's police dog team alerted officers to the presence of drugs, Nogales CBP Port Director Michael Humphries said.
Most of the seized fentanyl with an overall street value of about $3.5 million was in white powder form, but about 2 pounds of it (1 kilogram) was contained in pills. Agents also seized nearly 395 pounds (179 kilograms) of methamphetamine with a street value of $1.18 million, Humphries said.
"The size of a few grains of salt of fentanyl, which is a dangerous opioid, can kill a person very quickly," Humphries said. The seizure, he said, had prevented an immeasurable number of doses of the drug "that could have harmed so many families."
President Donald Trump praised the bust in a tweet Thursday, writing: "Our great U.S. Border Patrol Agents made the biggest Fentanyl bust in our Country's history. Thanks, as always, for a job well done!"
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Trump says State of Union address to stress 'unity'
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump said Thursday that "unity" will be the theme of his first State of the Union address under divided government and that he respects Stacey Abrams, who will give the Democratic response.
"I hope she does a good job. I respect her," Trump said of Abrams, who will be the first black woman to deliver the rebuttal.
Trump will give his speech Tuesday before a joint session of Congress at a sensitive time in talks over keeping the government open and funding the border wall he is demanding as part of any deal. Members of Congress are inviting federal workers worried about another shutdown after Feb. 15. Special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian election meddling also hovers.
Trump will also be surrounded by living reminders of the changes wrought by the 2018 midterm elections that ushered Democrats into the House majority.
Sitting behind him: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who maneuvered the president into retreating last week on his demand for a border wall in exchange for an end to the longest government shutdown in history.
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Venezuela opposition leader to police: Leave my family alone
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - The Venezuelan opposition leader challenging Nicolas Maduro's claim to the presidency warned officers from a feared state security unit Thursday to stay away from his family after he accused them of showing up at his apartment in a tense brush with the very force he is trying to persuade to switch allegiance and back him.
A visibly flustered but determined Juan Guaido told a crowd gathered at a university that members of a special police unit known for its brutal tactics had gone to his high-rise apartment in a middle-class neighborhood of Caracas while his 20-month-old daughter was inside.
"I hold you responsible for anything that might happen to my baby," the 35-year-old lawmaker said as his wife stood beside him.
He rushed home and emerged an hour later holding his smiling daughter, named for Francisco de Miranda, a Venezuelan patriot who paved the way for Venezuela's independence, and described how four agents from the police's Special Action Force had arrived at the building and asked security guards stationed there for his wife.
"Children are sacred," he admonished the agents as a crowd of supporters applauded. "Wives are sacred. So don't cross that red line."
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'Empire' actor's family calls for justice in Chicago attack
CHICAGO (AP) - Jussie Smollett's family said Thursday that the attack on the black and gay "Empire" actor in downtown Chicago this week was a "hate crime" and they pushed back against any suggestion that he was anything but honest with the police.
Smollett, who plays the gay character Jamal Lyon on the hit Fox television show, hasn't spoken publicly about the early Tuesday attack, though his representative said Wednesday that Smollett was recovering at home. Smollett's family issued a statement through a spokesman Thursday saying they believe he was the victim of an unprovoked "racial and homophobic hate crime" and that he has been forthright with the police, who are still searching for surveillance video of the attack.
"Jussie has told the police everything from the very beginning. His story has never changed, and we are hopeful they will find these men and bring them to justice," the family said.
They thanked the public "for their prayers" and said the family is "so grateful that God saw him through this cowardly attack alive."
"We want people to understand these targeted hate crimes are happening to our sisters, brothers and our gender non-conforming siblings, many who reside within the intersection of multiple identities, on a monthly, weekly, and sometimes even daily basis all across our country," the family said. "Oftentimes ending fatally, these are inhumane acts of domestic terrorism and they should be treated as such."
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Defense lawyer: Government case against El Chapo 'a fantasy'
NEW YORK (AP) - A defense attorney for Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman assailed the federal case against the Mexican drug lord as "a fantasy," telling a U.S. jury Thursday that the prosecution relied on a parade of cooperating witnesses who "lie, steal, cheat, deal drugs and kill people" for a living.
In an impassioned closing argument, defense attorney Jeffrey Lichtman said prosecutors failed to address a "600-pound gorilla" of reasonable doubt in their bid to convict one of the world's most notorious drug traffickers. He dismissed the testimony of government witnesses as "repulsive, dishonest garbage" and called into question the motives of the U.S. Justice Department, which he accused of disregarding another man the defense calls the actual cartel leader.
The prosecution, Lichtman added, orchestrated a "scripted event" over the past three months in federal court in Brooklyn based on the shifting accounts of degenerate drug dealers seeking leniency in their own cases.
"A house that's built on a rotten foundation won't stand for long," Lichtman said. "We have to trust the word of these lunatics?"
Prosecutors have described the evidence against Guzman as overwhelming. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Liskamm, in a rebuttal argument, said it's "inescapable" that Guzman directed a murderous drug syndicate, even calling the shots from behind bars at times.
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US prosecutors announce Chinese birth tourism crackdown
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - Dongyuan Li's business was called "You Win USA," and authorities say she coached pregnant Chinese women on how to get into the United States to deliver babies who would automatically enjoy all the benefits of American citizenship.
Over two years, the now-41-year-old raked in millions through her business, where mothers-to-be paid between $40,000 and $80,000 each to come to California, stay in an upscale apartment and give birth, authorities said.
Li, who was arrested Thursday, is one of 20 people charged in the first federal crackdown on birth tourism businesses that prosecutors said brought hundreds of pregnant women to the United States.
Jing Dong, 42, and Michael Wei Yueh Liu, 53, who allegedly operated "USA Happy Baby," also were arrested. More than a dozen others, including the operator of a third such business, also face charges but are believed to have returned to China, the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles said.
While it isn't illegal to visit the United States while pregnant, authorities said the businesses - which were raided by federal agents in 2015 - touted the benefits of having U.S. citizen babies, who could get free public education and years later help their parents immigrate.
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Survivors question brevity of FBI report on Vegas massacre
WASHINGTON (AP) - After a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School seven years ago, the FBI released 1,500 pages of documents from its investigation.
Its report on the 2017 massacre in Las Vegas was just three pages.
The brevity prompted disbelief and disappointment from survivors and relatives of victims. Even President Donald Trump said he was surprised, though he said he understood the FBI had not determined a motive in the Vegas shooting.
"There's disappointment that there's no answers - a reason a man would go into a hotel and kill innocent, beautiful souls," said Lisa Fine of Sacramento, California, who survived the attack that killed 58 people and injured nearly 900 others when shots were fired from a hotel window into a concert crowd. Fine recalled bullets whizzing past while she ran to safety.
"Would answers help us avoid this in the future? So that no one else has to be in a mass shooting? We're all talking about prevention," she said.
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When marketing flops: 5 Super Bowl ads that backfired
NEW YORK (AP) - Advertisers that spend millions of dollars on the Super Bowl are trying to avoid what the Ram truck company did with a Martin Luther King speech or what Groupon did spoofing promos for charities.
Though such messages can get attention, it's the wrong kind of attention. Groupon got buzz all right, but most of it was negative.
Here's a look at five Super Bowl ads that flopped, despite months of planning and great expense.
2018: RAM PROMOTES VOLUNTEERISM
Last year, a Ram truck ad showed people doing service-oriented tasks set against audio of King urging people to be "great" by serving the greater good. The ad was supposed to highlight the volunteer program Ram Nation.
