The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office said there was an active shooter at Aztec High School in New Mexico.
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Two students were killed when a gunman opened fire at a northern New Mexico high school Thursday morning, law enforcement officials said.
A spokesman for the New Mexico State Police told Fox News the suspected gunman was also killed. It’s unclear how the gunman died.
Law enforcement said Aztec High School, which is located in the Four Corners region and near the Navajo Nation, has been evacuated after it went into lockdown.
A law enforcement official and a Navajo Nation spokesman said more than a dozen were injured, however it was unclear how they were injured.
“It’s tragic when our children are harmed in violent ways especially on school campuses. We express our condolences to those families who have been harmed,” Russell Begaye, president of the Navajo Nation, said in a press release.
No additional information was provided on the condition of those who were injured, KOB reported.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the shooting happened inside the school or who was suspected of firing the shots.
Authorities said they cleared the buildings at the school and students were boarding buses to another location where they could be reunited with their parents.
On Facebook, law enforcement officials asked people to “avoid the area” while authorities secured the scene.
“Aztec High School is locked down and being evacuated. Please avoid the area. Parents can stage at 516 and Mesa Verde near the church to pick up their kids. We will update this as we learn more,” the post said.
Farmington Municipal Schools wrote on Facebook that all schools in the district went into preventive lockdown due to the incident.
“We have no reason to think there is any threat in Farmington at this time, but we are taking this advance action in order to secure all of our schools. Your students’ safety is our primary concern,” the statement said.
In nearby Bloomfield, police said local schools were also on lockdown as a precaution.
Federal agents and state police are investigating.
Fox News’ Ray Bogan and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Lucia I. Suarez Sang is a Reporter for FoxNews.com. Follow her on Twitter @luciasuarezsang
ISTANBUL — Officials, religious leaders and activists across the Middle East on Thursday condemned President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, with U.S. allies and foes alike denouncing the move as reckless and likely to ignite further violence in the region.
Criticism of the move, which breaks with decades of U.S. policy, poured in from countries including Morocco, Egypt, Pakistan and Iran. Lebanon’s Hezbollah called it “malicious aggression,” and Turkey’s president said it would plunge the region into a “ring of fire.”
Even stalwart allies such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — otherwise admirers of Trump’s presidency — took aim at the administration over the new policy. The Saudi government on Thursday described the decision as an “irresponsible and unwarranted step,” according to the state-run news agency. Qatar, too, warned of “serious repercussions” for stability in the region.
Jerusalem, although divided, is considered holy by Jews, Christians and Muslims, and Palestinians envision the eastern part of the city as the capital of any future state.
Israelis, on the other hand, see Jerusalem as their own eternal, undivided capital. Previous U.S. administrations kept the embassy in Tel Aviv, pending a final peace agreement that would determine Jerusalem’s status.
Demonstrators hold Turkish and Palestinian flags as they shout slogans during a protest against the U.S. intention to move its embassy to Jerusalem and to recognize the city as the capital of Israel, near the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, Dec. 7. (Umit Bektas/Reuters)
“The U.S. administration must reverse this unjust decision,” Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Thursday.
Abadi, who has partnered closely with the United States in the fight against the Islamic State, said the move could lead to “dangerous escalation” in the region. Iraq’s Foreign Ministry said it has summoned U.S. Ambassador Douglas Silliman to deliver a formal letter of protest.
In Turkey, where relations with Washington were already strained over U.S. support for Kurdish militias in Syria, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim likened Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem to pulling “the pin on a bomb ready to blow in the region.”
Speaking at a conference in the capital, Ankara, Yildirim said that Turkey, a NATO member, would not recognize the decision, Reuters news agency reported.
The U.S. Embassy in Ankara urged U.S. citizens to stay away from planned protests outside the embassy and consulates in Istanbul and Adana.
Outside the U.S. Embassy in the Jordanian capital, Amman, protesters denounced the United States, chanting against the decision and holding signs that read: “No to U.S. arrogance.”
“Before, the U.S. was a partner in peace to solve the problem in Palestine. Now, Jordanians see the U.S. as part of the problem,” said 60-year-old Hafeth Khawaja.
“All of the moderates in this region that stood by America, and put their faith in America for so many years, now look like fools,” he said. “We have been betrayed.”
Elsewhere, militants who have fought U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq took the opportunity to condemn both Israel and the United States.
Akram al-Kaabi, head of the Iran-backed Nujaba militia in Iraq, called Trump’s decision “foolish” and said it would spark an uprising. He added thatthe move legitimizes attacks on U.S. forces, of which there are thousands in Iraq.
Moqtada al-Sadr, an Iraqi Shiite cleric who has long opposed the United States, echoed that thought, saying governments should expel Israeli diplomats and temporarily shutter American embassies.
In Afghanistan, a Taliban spokesman said in an emailed statement that the decision will “fan the flames of conflict in the entire world.”
Trump, the spokesman said, has exposed U.S. support for a “policy of occupation and colonization of Muslim lands.”
El-Ghobashy reported from Baghdad. Mustafa Salim in Baghdad, Sayed Salahuddin in Kabul and Taylor Luck in Amman contributed to this report.
In a stunning close to his congressional career, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) on Thursday announced he will resign amid multiple allegations that he inappropriately touched women.
Franken, while denying the allegations, said he will leave the Senate in the coming weeks. His announcement came one day after the emergence of another accusation of misconduct led a majority of Senate Democrats to call for Franken’s resignation.
Striking a defiant tone in a speech on the Senate floor, Franken defended his political legacy and made clear he was not admitting to the behavior described by his accusers.
“Some of the allegations against me simply are not true, others I remember very differently,” he said.
Franken also took at aim at President Trump and Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, who Democrats charge have been accused of more serious allegations of sexual misconduct.
“I of all people am aware that there is some irony in the fact that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the Senate with the full support of his party,” Franken said.
But despite his misgivings, Franken said the controversy had become too much of a distraction and would prevent him from fully fulfilling his duties as a senator if he stayed in office.
“But this decision is not about me. It’s about the people of Minnesota,” he said. “It’s become clear that I can’t both pursue the Ethics Committee process and at the same time, remain an effective senator for them.”
He added: “I may be resigning my seat, but I am not giving up my voice.”
The announcement comes amid a reckoning on Capitol Hill over allegations of sexual harassment against male lawmakers.
“Enough is enough,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said at a news conference on Wednesday. “We need to draw a line in the sand and say none of it is okay, none of it is acceptable. We as elected leaders should absolutely be held to a higher standard, not a lower standard, and we should fundamentally be valuing women. That is where this debate has to go.”
When Franken steps down, a replacement will be appointed by Minnesota’s Democratic governor to serve until the 2018 election.
He is expected to make his resignation effective at the end of the month, according to a person familiar with his decision, to give time for the governor and his successor to prepare. That time frame would also allow Franken to stick around for potentially consequential votes on the Republican tax bill, funding the government and potentially the fate of “dreamers,” illegal immigrants brought to the country as children.
The drive to purge Franken, coming a day after Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) resigned under pressure in the House, was a dramatic indication of the political toxicity that has grown around the issue of sexual harassment in recent months.
It also stood as a stark — and deliberate — contrast with how the Republicans are handling a parallel situation in Alabama, where Moore, who will face voters in next week’s special election, is accused by women of pursuing them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s.
Although most of the alleged actions took place before he was a senator, Franken was becoming a growing liability to his party, and Republicans had seized upon the allegations against him.
At Moore’s Tuesday night rally, conservative pundit Gina Loudon declared that Republicans did not need lectures on morality from Democrats who had struggled with their own sex scandals, and cited both Conyers and Franken.
Trump, himself the target of multiple allegations of sexual assault, has enthusiastically endorsed Moore, and the Republican Party is once again pouring money into the race after initially pulling back. Leading Senate Republicans have also toned down their negative comments about Moore, saying his fate should be up to the voters of Alabama and — if he is elected — the Senate Ethics Committee.
Democrats said they agreed with Franken’s decision and called on Republicans to reject members of their party facing similar accusations.
“Now, Republicans must join Democrats in holding their own accountable,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said. “The American people should take notice of national Republicans’ support for a morally degraded Senate candidate in Alabama and a President in the Oval Office facing equally credible charges.”
The move by Senate Democrats to oust Franken marked a dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of the onetime “Saturday Night Live” star. The senator from Minnesota had emerged as one of the Trump administration’s sharpest foils on Capitol Hill — and as a potential 2020 presidential contender.
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) stood in front of journalists outside his Capitol Hill office on Nov. 27 to comment on the sexual harassment allegations against him. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
Over the past three weeks, more than a half-dozen women have accused Franken of unwanted advances and touching. He apologized, saying in some cases that he had not intended to give offense and in others that he did not recall events as the women did.
The latest allegation against Franken came in a report published Wednesday by Politico. A former congressional aide whose name was withheld by the publication claimed that Franken had tried to forcibly kiss her after a taping of his radio show in 2006, two years before his election to the Senate.
The woman claimed that Franken had told her, “It’s my right as an entertainer.”
Franken denied this allegation and said during his floor speech that while he did not believe other accusations or remember the encounters in the same way, he wanted to be sensitive to the growing national discussion over sexual harassment.
“I was shocked. I was upset,” he said of the allegations against him in recent weeks. “But in responding to their claims, I wanted to be respectful of that broader conversation because all women deserve to be heard and their experience taken seriously.”
Franken’s alleged offenses were arguably less serious than those attributed to Moore, or to Conyers, the longest-serving member of Congress, who was accused of demanding sexual favors from the women who worked for him. Until late last week, it appeared that Franken’s fellow Democrats would allow his case to work its way through the Senate Ethics Committee, a process that would take months and perhaps years to reach a resolution.
As recently as Nov. 26, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the Senate’s second-ranking Democrat, argued on CNN: “Al Franken has acknowledged what he did was wrong, and it was wrong. He has also submitted his whole case to the Senate Ethics Committee. I think that was the right thing to do. Let’s have a hearing, an investigation. Let’s let this really reach whatever conclusion it is going to reach, but through a due process.”
But on Wednesday, Durbin expressed no such forbearance. “Senator Franken’s conduct was wrong. He has admitted to it. And he should resign from the Senate.”
Even as Senate Democrats expressed support publicly for leaving Franken’s fate in the hands of the Ethics Committee, his female colleagues were increasingly unsettled as new accusers went public.
“People were at the edge of their patience with this. They’d had enough. One more allegation was going to be it,” said one senior aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations.
Another said female Democratic senators had been discussing it among themselves “on the Senate floor, even in the ladies’ room.”
“Many people have been talking about this for some time,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said. “It wasn’t coordinated. It just happened.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has served in the Senate longer than most of her female colleagues, said it was “significant that the women on his side of the aisle led the way” and added that she believed the latest allegation was “in some ways the final straw for people.”
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), joined at left by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), meets reporters following a closed-door strategy session on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. (J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press)
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who had stood by his friend in the wake of the allegations, called Franken after the Politico story broke early Wednesday and told him directly he had to resign, according to a person familiar with the call, who added that this came before other senators began calling for him to step down.
Schumer also met with Franken and his wife at the leader’s apartment early afternoon to discuss resigning. The session ended without a firm commitment from Franken to do so, said the source, who was granted anonymity to speak frankly about the private exchange.
In recent days — before Wednesday’s report — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who has known Franken for nearly two decades, had also told Franken he needed to step down, aides familiar with their discussions said. On Wednesday, Warren issued a short public statement, saying, “I think he should resign.”
Franken had staved off public calls for his ouster last week, according to a person who has been in touch with the senator and his staff in recent days.
There was a “mad rush” last week to call on Franken to resign when more allegations surfaced, said the person, who was granted anonymity to speak frankly about private discussions. “I think that people were talked off the ledge at that point and wanted to recollect and figure out if the Senate Ethics investigation should just move forward.”
But, “I’m pretty sure that Al should have known that if there was another story that came out that there’d be a mass exodus away from him.”
Outside the chamber, growing numbers of Democrats had been making the case that it was untenable for Franken to remain in the Senate if their party hoped to maintain the high ground on the issue.
Among those calling for Franken to step down was Doug Jones, Moore’s Democratic opponent in Alabama.
And though she did not mention Franken by name, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had declared a policy of “zero tolerance” when she called last week for Conyers to leave the House. On Wednesday, Pelosi declared that she was “very proud of the fact that people are taking this matter head on and are trusting women who come forward, what they have to say.”
Homes in Los Angeles’ Bel-Air neighborhood were burning Wednesday morning as a wind-driven wildfire prompted closure of the 405 Freeway as well as mandatory evacuations in an area of multimillion-dollar homes.
The Skirball fire was estimated to cover about 150 acres and has destroyed four to six homes by 9:40 a.m., but Los Angeles fire officials said it was being fueled by 25 mph winds and would likely grow.
As of 9 a.m., the southbound 405 Freeway was open but the northbound 405 remained completely closed from the 10 to the 101 freeways.
Ash and smoke swirled in the sky as dozens of firefighters fought flames atop hills adjacent to the 405. Television news video showed multiple homes in flames.
Firefighters battled to save at least one home engulfed in flames, atop a hill adjacent to the 405 northbound freeway near Getty Center Drive.
“It’s been years since anything here has burned at all,” said Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Cody Weireter. “You’ve got heavy, heavy brush, you’ve got the dryness — obviously, we haven’t had any rain at all. A lot of the fire is topography-driven, which already becomes dangerous. The wind is going to increase that twofold.”
Authorities have ordered the evacuation of all homes between Mulholland Drive on the north, Sunset Boulevard on the south, Roscomare Road on the east and the 405 Freeway on the west. Earlier in the morning they ordered evacuations along Casiano Road, Moraga Drive and Linda Flora Drive.
Officials also urged residents west of the fire — bounded by Mulholland, Sunset, the 405 and Mandeville Canyon Road — to be ready to leave, although that area is not under an evacuation order. As of 8 a.m., the fire remained east of the 405 Freeway.
An evacuation center has been established at the Barrington Recreation Center.
Winds, along with heavy smoke and ash, have impeded the firefighters’ progress in containing the fire, he said. Officials do not yet know how many homes have been damaged or destroyed.
“We’re still trying to get our arms around it,” Weireter said. “We’re still trying to get resources on scene, and still trying to get our hose line in place and get our box around this.”
Around 7:45 a.m., firefighters were using chainsaws to chop down brush near the fire. The dozen or so firefighters had hiked up a hill near the Getty Center exit, adjacent to the northbound 405 Freeway.
Shortly after 8 a.m, the orange flames had turned into gray smoke. The multimillion-dollar mansions they had threatened sat about 100 feet away from the extinguished flames, safe for now.
The fire also caused massive gridlock along one of the city’s most congested commuter corridors. Caltrans announced the full closure of the 405 Freeway between the 101 and 10 freeways. It has also closed all onramps to the 405.
Residents near Bel Terrace and North Sepulveda Boulevard raced outside Wednesday morning as flames encroached on their homes.
Beverly Freeman, 83, pulled out of her driveway ahead of the flames just before 7 a.m. She didn’t take any belongings with her.
As Freeman drove away from the two-story gray house that her husband built for her three decades ago, she was not sure if she would have a home to return to.
“I was going to die in this house,” she said as tears came to her eyes. “The flames have never come so close.”
Across the street, Ebrahim Kadkhuda ran inside his one-story home and grabbed some family pictures.
“It grew so fast,” he said, looking at the flames as he loaded up his black Toyota.
The fire, which was first reported to be in the Brentwood neighborhood, started shortly before 5 a.m. and was moving uphill, the Fire Department said.
The fire was burning on the east side of the 405 Freeway across from the Getty Center, where winds were blowing up to 25 mph.
Officials said more than 125 firefighters were on the scene and that water-dropping helicopters were being used.
The fire started near the 405 and was burning near homes at the top of a ridge.
All schools in the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District are closed Wednesday, as are the following Los Angeles Unified School District campuses: Roscomare Road Elementary, Community Elementary Magnet Charter School and Kenter Canyon Elementary School.
UCLA told most faculty and students off campus to stay away Wednesday morning. “Except for UCLA Health, all other staff, faculty and students who are off campus should not attempt to come to campus until the situation is resolved,” the Westwood university tweeted. “Classes are optional and students should check with their instructors.”
Times reporter Kate Mather contributed to this report.
laura.nelson@latimes.com
melissa.etehad@latimes.com
Sonali.Kohli@latimes.com
UPDATES:
9:40 a.m.: This story was updated with acreage and damage
9 a.m.: This story was updated with freeway closure information and a statement from UCLA.
8:20 a.m.: This story was updated with comments from Weireter.
7:45 a.m.: This post was updated with new evacuation orders and school closures
7:20 a.m.: This post was updated with residents evacuating.
6:55 a.m.: This post was updated with the full closure of the 405 Freeway.
6:10 a.m.: This post was updated with details on evacuation orders.
5:50 a.m.: This post was updated with acreage burned and freeway closure.
Jerusalem (CNN)Jordan’s King Abdullah voiced his concern Wednesday over US President Donald Trump’s plans to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US embassy there, saying the city is key to regional stability.
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CNN’s Andrew Carey reported from Jerusalem and Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London. CNN’s Schams Elwazer, Hilary McGann, Isil Sariyuce, Seb Shukla, Emma Burrows, Daniel Nikbakht, Kareem Khadder, Gul Tuysuz and Hada Messia, and journalist Ofri Eshel, contributed to this report.
A dozen Senate Democrats called Wednesday for Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) to resign amid mounting allegations of sexual harassment, raising the possibility he will become the second lawmaker to step aside over recent accusations of inappropriate behavior.
Franken’s office said he would make an announcement about his political future on Thursday. No other details were provided.
In a campaign started by Democratic women, nearly a dozen senators said Franken should leave Capitol Hill. Franken faces multiple accusations of inappropriate touching and unwanted advances. He has denied intentional wrongdoing and has apologized.
“Enough is enough,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) told reporters at a news conference. “We need to draw a line in the sand and say none of it is okay, none of it is acceptable. We as elected leaders should absolutely be held to a higher standard, not a lower standard, and we should fundamentally be valuing women. That is where this debate has to go.”
The other senators urging Franken to resign were Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.), Kamala D. Harris (Calif.), Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Patty Murray (Wash.), the highest-ranking woman among Senate Democrats, along with Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Robert P. Casey Jr. (Pa.) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio).
The calls came after another woman accused Franken of trying to forcibly kiss her after a taping of his radio show in 2006, before his election to the Senate.
The woman, a former Democratic congressional aide, said Franken pursued her as she left the station. When he tried to kiss her, he told her, “It’s my right as an entertainer,” she said.
Politico, which reported the allegation Wednesday, withheld the woman’s name. She was in her mid-20s at the time of the alleged incident.
If he resigns, Franken would be the second member of Congress to step aside during a recent reckoning over sexual harassment on Capitol Hill. Facing multiple accusations of inappropriate behavior around female aides, Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) stepped down on Tuesday after more than half a century in Congress.
Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, joined the calls for Franken’s ouster.
“Sen. Al Franken should step down. Everyone must share the responsibility of building a culture of trust and respect for women in every industry and workplace, and that includes our party,” he wrote on Twitter.
In recent days, the Democratic women senators had spoken privately among themselves about the situation, agreeing that they could not tolerate Franken’s presence as allegations continued trickling out.
“People were at the edge of their patience with this. They’d had enough. One more allegation was going to be it,” said one senior aide, who was granted anonymity to describe private deliberations.
A second Senate aide familiar with the talks confirmed the private discussions among female senators.
Describing the mood among Senate Democrats, the aide said, “It’s a s—-y day.”
If Franken resigns, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D) would pick his replacement, who would serve until a November 2018 special election to fill the final two years of Franken’s term.
Franken has said he will cooperate with an ongoing investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee. But Gillibrand argued the panel is not equipped to deliver “the kind of accountability the American people are searching for.”
“I think it would be better for the country for him to offer that clear message that he values women, that we value women and that this kind of behavior is not acceptable,” she said.
• Republicans are working on passing a two-week stopgap measure to avoid a government shutdown. (NYT)
• The Supreme Court allowed the third version of the Trump administration’s travel ban to take effect while legal challenges against the ban continued. (NYT)
• Repealing the individual insurance mandate is more unpopular among the public than initial opinion polling had suggested. (Axios)
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Mike Cohen for The New York Times
Putting the Aetna C.E.O.’s potentially big payday into context.
Mark Bertolini is set to receive as much as $500 million if his deal to sell the insurer to CVS is completed, the WSJ reported today. That’s a big number. But let’s point out a couple of things:
• Most of that value — some $230 million at the agreed-upon deal price of $207 a share — is tied to stock or appreciation rights that he had received during his tenure and that has already vested.
• Another $190 million would come from stock that he already owns.
• Then $60 million to $85 million would come from a change-in-control provision that was last amended in 2010, years before Mr. Bertolini had begun considering whether to sell Aetna.
• A significant portion of the acquisition price is in CVS stock, which has gone down more than 5 percent since the transaction was announced.
Half a billion dollars is a huge amount of money, by any standard. And it’s fair for critics to question the practice of giving C.E.O.s huge stock payouts as part of their compensation. But it doesn’t appears as though Aetna had changed Mr. Bertolini’s compensation meaningfully before the CVS deal.
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The AOL co-founder Steve Case, front, and the author J.D. Vance, right. They quietly recruited some of the country’s wealthiest people to invest in their Rise of the Rest fund. Credit
Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times
Steve Case signs big partners for his new fund.
The former AOL chief executive, who is working with the author J.D. Vance, has gotten some major business stars for Rise of the Rest, an investment vehicle for pouring money into start-ups in the industrial “flyover” heart of the United States. (Read: not in Silicon Valley).
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Among the backers, who have also pledged to work with businesses that receive money from the fund, according to Andrew’s latest DealBook column:
• From the tech world: Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Eric Schmidt of Alphabet and the venture capitalist John Doerr
• From the financial industry: Henry Kravis of K.K.R., David Rubenstein of the Carlyle Group and Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates
• From the rest of the business world: Howard Schultz of Starbucks, the fashion mogul Tory Burch, and the sports team owners Ted Leonsis and Dan Gilbert
Andrew writes, “All told, it may be the greatest concentration of American wealth and power in one investment fund.”
The tech flyaround
• Facebook has introduced a messenger app for children age 13 and younger. (NYT)
• The tech giant wants to spend “a few billion dollars” on sports rights worldwide. (Sports Business Journal via Recode)
• Google couldn’t establish a beachhead in China. Can it do so in India? (NYT)
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Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press
Broadcom takes new risks in going hostile on Qualcomm.
In seeking to replace Qualcomm’s board, Broadcom is taking a chance. The company chose to pull one of the two levers available to try to force Qualcomm to the negotiating table. (The other, of course, would have been to raise its bid above $70 a share.)
Thomson Reuters reminded Michael of the odds of proxy fights and hostile bids succeeding in some fashion:
• Roughly 40 percent of hostile takeovers over the past 25 years ended in a deal.
• Only about 26 percent of proxy fights that went to a shareholder vote over the last five years led to victory for the challenger.
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• If one includes settlements between the company and activists, challengers have succeeded roughly 57 percent of the time in the past five years.
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Can CVS get its Aetna deal done, and make it work?
It isn’t just a question of antitrust (though we’ll get to that). CVS shareholders appeared displeased at how expensive and cash-rich the takeover bid turned out to be. Lex calculates that the net debt of the combined company would be a hefty 4.6 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
Now on antitrust: Analysts and industry experts still aren’t sure how the government will assess the transaction and its effect on competition. Critics worry about any further limiting of options for consumers, from which pharmacy they can use, to which doctor they can see, according to the NYT.
If the deal closes: CVS would then have to worry about how to make the new company work. From Anna Wilde Mathews and Sharon Terlep of the WSJ:
No major health care company has tried to build a vertical system around the combination of drugstores, insurance and pharmacy-benefit management, the main businesses of CVS and Aetna, experts said.
A fee bonanza: CVS and Aetna relied on a dozen banks and law firms to assemble the transaction. The banks could split $120 million to $140 million in advisory fees alone, according to estimates from Thomson Reuters.
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Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain and the European Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, in Brussels on Monday. Credit
Julien Warnand/European Pressphoto Agency
An Irish roadblock in the Brexit talks.
Just when Prime Minister Theresa May thought that she had made substantial progress in negotiations with European Union counterparts, her governing coalition partner, the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, withdrew its support from an agreement on how to handle the border with Ireland.
A tight deadline: Britain and the E.U. are meant to reach “sufficient progress” on key topics by the end of next week, including resolving Britain’s divorce bill from the political bloc, the rights of European citizens living in Britain, and the Irish border.
What’s next: A possible breakthrough with the D.U.P. Or the collapse of Ms. May’s governing coalition, potentially leading to Britain’s third general election in three years.
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Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch
More fallout from the accusations against Shervin Pishevar.
After the venture capitalist faced accusations of sexual misconduct and assault, two Democratic senators, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California, gave to charity money that they had received from the investor, a major donor to Democratic politicians, Bloomberg reported.
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But will the claims cause Mr. Pishevar any blowback in his professional life?
• Bloomberg said that some board members of Virgin Hyperloop One, the high-speed train start-up he co-founded, have pressed him to resign. A spokeswoman for the company denied that part of the report.
• Uber, of which Mr. Pishevar was an early backer, said, “We fully support those who have felt harassed speaking out, whenever and however they choose.”
More sexual misconduct news
• Netflix said that “House of Cards” will resume production of its final season with Robin Wright as its remaining star, after Kevin Spacey was fired. (NYT)
• The Metropolitan Opera’s firing of the famed conductor James Levine has left the institution reeling, and calling to reassure donors that it will take appropriate action as it works to shore up its finances. (NYT, WSJ)
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Joshua Roberts/Reuters
Mick Mulvaney begins remaking the C.F.P.B.
The acting director — though not according to the bureau’s deputy director, who is also claiming that title — has frozen the financial consumer regulator’s collection of data from credit cards and mortgages. Mr. Mulvaney said the decision was made for cybersecurity reasons, but the move halted a practice long criticized by the lending industry.
He also resumed payouts to victims of financial crimes, after having temporarily halted those disbursements.
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Andrew Burton/Getty Images
The digital currency flyaround
• The Winklevoss twins have really struck it rich with their early investment in Bitcoin. (Telegraph)
• Ethereum may have preached the values of its network to supply chains and securities sales, but it’s mainly used for buying cartoon kittens known as CryptoKitties. (Bloomberg)
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• The Securities and Exchange Commission announced its cyber unit’s first enforcement action against an initial coin offering. (WSJ)
• Ben Eisen of the WSJ describes the lessons he learned in selling the Bitcoin he was given as a wedding gift — and missing out on the recent Bitcoin boom. (WSJ)
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John Dowd is leading President Trump’s legal team. Credit
Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Ouch.
When he was the U.S. attorney general for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara tangled with the defense lawyer John Dowd once before, in the trial of the hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam over charges of insider trading.
Now that Mr. Dowd is back in the news in his role as personal defense lawyer for Mr. Trump — a role in which Mr. Dowd contended that the president could not be found guilty of obstruction of justice — Mr. Bharara weighed in on his former legal opponent.
“I had experience with John Dowd when he represented an individual named Raj Rajaratnam, who was convicted on all counts. And during the course of that trial and after that trial, John Dowd said a lot of — how shall I put it? — ludicrous, silly things. So that’s par for the course for him.”
The Speed Read
• New York State’s attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, wrote an open letter to F.C.C. chairman Ajit Pai asking for a delay to the repeal of net neutrality rules, citing concern over the discovery of fake comments posted to the regulator’s website. (Medium)
• Discovery Communications is taking majority control of OWN, the cable network it co-owns with Oprah Winfrey. (WSJ)
• The British cinema chain Cineworld has agreed to buy Regal in a $3.6 billion deal that will create the world’s second-largest cinema group, operating in 10 countries including the United States. (BBC)
• Merrill Lynch will remain in a recruiting pact known as the Protocol for Broker Recruiting, which may help it to retain staff and recruit as Wall Street brokerages face challenges from independent rivals. (WSJ)
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• Germany’s financial regulator, BaFin, is investigating whether HNA Group accurately reported its holdings when building a stake in Deutsche Bank, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. (Bloomberg)
• Marcato Capital, led by the Bill Ackman protégé Mick McGuire, said it would seek fewer seats on the board of Deckers Outdoor, the maker of Uggs, after the advisory firms ISS and Glass Lewis failed to endorse its candidates. (NYPost)
• Children from lower-income homes, children of color and girls aren’t being encouraged to innovate, and that is harming the economy in the United States, according to the Equality of Opportunity project. (The Atlantic)
• A group of global hedge fund managers have said it is willing to pursue the Spanish government for a “zillion years” until they get as much as 4.5 billion euros, or $5.3 billion, over bankrupt toll roads. (FT)
• The Hartford agreed to sell Talcott Resolution, an annuities business, to an investor group led by Cornell Capital for about $2 billion. (The Hartford)
• The Italian tax police searched Gucci’s campus in Milan and its offices in Florence as part of an investigation into potential tax evasion. (NYT)
• For the first time in 40 years, power plants no longer are the biggest source of greenhouse gas pollution in the United States: It’s now the transportation sector because the electric grid has been cleaning up its act. (Bloomberg)
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Must be nice: There’s a $43-million public high school on the campus of software company Oracle. New York Times
CRIME AND COURTS
See you in court: For more than a year, Uber Technologies Inc. concealed a massive hack that exposed the personal data of millions of drivers and riders, violating a California law that requires companies to promptly report such breaches, according to a lawsuit filed Monday by Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer. Los Angeles Times
She turned in her son: Before dawn, a woman with her 18-year-old son in her car flagged down a sergeant at Riverside’s Magnolia Avenuepolice station with a startling request. She said she wanted to turn in her son, who had earlier called her to say he had molested two boys, 8 and 4, in a motel room. Los Angeles Times
An appeal and outrage: “Brock Turner, the former Stanford student whose three-month jail stint for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman drew national condemnation, has filed an appeal that has reinflamed anger among activists and advocates of women who have endured sexual violence.” San Francisco Chronicle
CALIFORNIA CULTURE
Sans Spacey: “House of Cards” will resume production in 2018 without Kevin Spacey, said Ted Sarandos, the chief content officer of Netflix. The sixth and final season of the popular series will feature a lead role for Robin Wright, who plays the wife of Spacey’s character. Production on the sixth season of “House of Cards” came to a halt Oct. 31 after sexual misconduct allegations against Spacey, who starred in the series for five seasons as politician Frank Underwood and also served as an executive producer. Spacey was officially suspended from the show early last month. Los Angeles Times
Drama: The father of UCLA freshman shooting guard LiAngelo Ball said Monday that he intended to withdraw his son from school over concerns related to the indefinite suspension he was issued last month for his acknowledged role in a shoplifting incident. Los Angeles Times
Plus: “In what many employees at Staples Center view as the ‘LaVar Ball rule,’ this season the Los Angeles Lakers are enforcing “an existing policy” that no longer allows members of the media to congregate in a section of the arena among family and associates of players after games.” ESPN
History lesson here: The Hollywood screen legend Hedy Lamarr also had a career as a wartime inventor. The New Yorker
CALIFORNIA ALMANAC
Los Angeles area: Sunny, 74, Tuesday. Sunny, 77, Wednesday. San Diego: Partly cloudy, 72, Tuesday. Sunny, 75, Wednesday. San Francisco area: Sunny, 62, Tuesday. Sunny, 61, Wednesday. Sacramento: Sunny, 61, Tuesday. Sunny, 59, Wednesday. More weather is here.
AND FINALLY
Today’s California memory comes from Nina Mintzer:
“We moved to California two days after our wedding in 1966. While playing miniature golf in Hollywood, we were approached by a scout who asked us if we wanted to be on ‘The Newlywed Game.’ We won first prize and had a console TV delivered weeks later. We explained to the deliverymen that we had won it as they looked around our empty apartment. My grandmother’s comment was that she knew when I moved to Hollywood that I would be on TV and become famous. I am not; but we have lived our life here, and we know that Brooklyn is a good place to be from, but California is home.”
If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)
Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad.
The decision sets up a battle within the Conyers family for his Detroit-area House seat. Ian Conyers, a Michigan state senator and the grandson of Mr. Conyers’s brother, said he also plans to run for the seat held by his 88-year-old great-uncle.
“His doctor advised him that the rigor of another campaign would be too much for him just in terms of his health,” Ian Conyers said.
The congressman, who took his Michigan seat in the House in 1965, has already stepped aside as the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee amid swirling allegations of sexual improprieties. He has been facing intense pressure to resign.
Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader, have each said Mr. Conyers should resign after a woman who settled a sexual harassment claim against him said on television that the congressman had “violated” her body, repeatedly propositioned her for sex and asked her to touch his genitals. Other former staff members have since come forward to say he harassed them or behaved inappropriately.
The younger Mr. Conyers said that despite the accusations, he believes Michigan voters will reward his family’s work in politics by electing him.
The congressman “still enjoys healthy support in our district,” Mr. Conyers said.
He added, “People are ready to support our dean and to support our family as we continue to fight, as we have for leading up to a century, for people from Southeast Michigan.”
He said he believed his great-uncle should have due process but stopped short of defending him.
“I stand with my uncle in terms of his belief of no specific wrongdoing,” Mr. Conyers said. “However, those things need to have their day in court.”
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The state senator, who has been in office for about a year, said he had planned to run for re-election next year for his current statehouse seat but would give up that race to run for his great-uncle’s seat in Washington.
“I’m absolutely going to file for his seat. The work of our congressional district, where I come out of, has to continue,” he said. “We have got to have someone who has depth and experience but also historical understanding of what it takes to fight this type of evil in Washington.”
The elder Mr. Conyers plans to call into “The Mildred Gaddis Show,” a local radio program, to make the announcement, the younger Mr. Conyers said. His decision comes as several other lawmakers face allegations of inappropriate behavior.
Representative Joe Barton, a Republican and the Texas delegation’s most senior House member, announced this week in an interview with The Dallas Morning News that he would not seek re-election after sexually suggestive online messages that he sent to a constituent came to light.
Representative Blake Farenthold, Republican of Texas, is also facing pressure after it was revealed last week that he used $84,000 in taxpayer funds to settle a sexual harassment claim with his former communications director, Lauren Greene. She accused him of regularly making comments to gauge her interest in a sexual relationship, including saying he was having “sexual fantasies” about her.
And last week, an Ohio Army veteran became the fifth woman to accuse Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, of inappropriate touching. Senior House Democrats have also begun calling for Mr. Franken to resign.
