Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. I’m Bill Thomas, and we have some really interesting stories to share with you right now, and here’s what’s going on.
The Lone Star State shuts down a hotel occupied by a violent South American gang, a city in Ohio that’s been in the national spotlight recently gets bomb threats, and we have the answer to a possible second presidential debate.
Also, the White House responds to a viral video of President Joe Biden at one of this week’s 9/11 events, and a former CIA officer is busted for spying for China.
Texas Shuts Down Hotel Occupied by Gang Members
Tren de Aragua is a Venezuelan gang with around 5,000 members and is connected to murder, drugs, and human trafficking. Its members are believed to be taking advantage of the chaos at the border, and illegally coming across.El Paso County Attorney Christina Sanchez filed a lawsuit last month to close the crime-ridden Gateway Hotel in downtown El Paso for multiple code violations, noting there have been 693 police and service calls at that location over the past two years.
For example, security videos at the hotel show an aggravated assault with men holding knives, and another man assaulting people with a hatchet and causing damage to the hotel in front of a security guard. There’s also been at least one indecency with a child call, according to court documents.
The lawsuit names the Gateway Hotel; Gigante Enterprises LLC, which owns the business; and hotel owner Howard Yun as defendants.
You should know that Tren de Aragua gang members have occupied the building since at least June of this year, according to court documents obtained by The Epoch Times.
Interesting to note, El Paso isn’t the only Texas city dealing with the Venezuelan gang. Members are also wreaking havoc in areas of Dallas County.
So you know, Tren de Aragua first captured the nation’s attention in a viral video showing the armed gangsters taking over an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado. A lawyer representing that apartment complex also says there’s evidence that indicates that the Venezuelan gang members in Aurora engaged in human trafficking.
Interesting to note, President Joe Biden designated Tren de Aragua as a transnational criminal organization in July.
Springfield City Hall in Ohio Evacuated After Bomb Threats
Springfield officials were alerted to the bomb threat at City Hall by an email yesterday morning, which was also emailed to multiple agencies and media outlets.A city spokesperson said that out of an abundance of caution, they evacuated the building and an investigation is underway.
In recent days, Springfield has drawn national attention after viral social media posts alleged that migrants from Haiti were killing and eating pets and animals in the neighborhood. People who spoke at town hall events, in videos that were shared online, also accused the migrants of making residents feel unsafe by frequently crashing vehicles and camping out on people’s property.
By the way, those claims were amplified by former President Donald Trump during Tuesday’s presidential debate when he said, “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs.”
However, city officials have disputed the allegations, saying there have been “no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”
Nonetheless, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine says that, in order to deal with the surge of Haitians in Springfield, he’s deploying Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers to patrol the city’s roads, as well as allocating $2.5 million to provide more primary health care.
Trump Announces No 2nd Harris Debate
Yesterday, Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that he will not do another debate. It was in response to calls from Harris’s team asking for a second one. Trump likened Harris asking for a second debate to a prize fighter who’s lost a fight and wants a rematch.So you know, he posted, in all caps, “There will be no third debate,” counting the debate with President Joe Biden as the first one.
In that same post yesterday, Trump said he believes he made his point during the first two debates about illegal immigration, the economy, and other Biden–Harris policies.
He went on to state that inflation is bankrupting the middle class.
You should know that soon after Trump’s post appeared on his social media, Harris, who was at a rally in North Carolina, said that she wants to face the 45th president again.
Initially, Trump and Biden agreed to two debates. However, weeks after their debate in June, Biden announced he was suspending his presidential campaign and backed Harris.
Interesting to note, a debate between the two vice presidential candidates, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, is set for Oct. 1 on CBS.
White House Responds to Biden Wearing Trump Cap
Biden surprised many Americans when he put on a “Trump 2024” cap in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at an event commemorating the 9/11 attacks.Here’s how that happened. At the event, Biden offered a hat with the presidential seal to a Trump supporter, who asked the president to autograph it before they joked about their respective ages. Biden then said, “I need that hat,” pointing to the man’s Trump hat. He gave it to Biden who put it on, briefly.
By the way, after that moment went viral, a Trump campaign account on the social platform X posted, “Thanks for the support, Joe!” The video of Biden wearing that red hat had some Trump fans speculating that Biden was trying to send a message to Harris. During Tuesday’s debate, Trump said that the Democrats forced Biden to withdraw from the 2024 campaign and that if Biden hadn’t debated him, he’d still be running instead of Harris.
So you know, Biden has denied that he was forced to step down.
When asked about the Trump cap later, White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates explained that the gesture by Biden was about the country’s bipartisan unity after 9/11, saying we need to get back to that.
Wednesday marked the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
Ex-CIA Officer Receives 10-Year Prison Sentence
The officer who provided “a large volume” of classified U.S. national defense information to China was just sentenced to 10 years in prison in Honolulu.A little background: 71-year-old Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, who was born in Hong Kong, moved to Honolulu in 1968 and became a U.S. citizen in 1975. He worked for the CIA from 1982 until 1989. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), he held a top-secret security clearance during his tenure at the agency, granting him access to “sensitive and classified CIA information.” After leaving the CIA, Ma lived and worked in Shanghai before returning to Hawaii in 2001.
Prosecutors say Ma became a “compromised asset” of the Chinese Ministry of State Security, China’s top intelligence agency, as early as 2001.
Ma also worked as a contract linguist for the FBI’s field office in Honolulu, and the FBI, which had become aware of Ma’s ties to Chinese intelligence, enlisted him in order to covertly track his activities and contacts with the Shanghai State Security Bureau around 2004.
Over the next six years at the FBI, Ma regularly copied, photographed, and stole classified U.S. documents, including research on guided missiles and weapons systems, prosecutors say. He often took these stolen documents on trips to China, returning with thousands of dollars in cash and expensive gifts, including a new set of golf clubs. So you know, his job at the FBI ended in 2012.
He was arrested in August 2020, and this past May, he pleaded guilty to conspiring to gather and deliver national defense information to China, in exchange for a 10-year sentence.
Interesting to note that in a letter to the judge prior to his sentencing, he said he hopes God and America forgive him for what he’s done.
You should know that the DOJ has been cracking down on several cases of Chinese espionage in recent years.
And now, it looks like our time is just about up for today, so we’re going to call it a wrap for the Friday edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
*(Don’t forget the News Brief Motto): We’re portable, affordable, and always on-demand.
And finally, as we do each and every day on this program, we wrap everything up with a very notable quote, and this one comes to us from Laura Ingalls Wilder, who said: “Some old-fashioned things like fresh air and sunshine are hard to beat.”
Wilder was an American writer. The “Little House on the Prairie” series of children’s books was based on her childhood in a settler and pioneer family, and the “Little House” TV series will live on forever and ever in reruns.
Before we go, today is Positive Thinking Day, and it’s also National Peanut Day.
For all of us here at The Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.
The Epoch Times News Brief program is written by the extraordinary Sharon Reardon.
Thank you for making us your one-stop source for a concise, accurate, and unbiased daily synopsis of many of the news stories you need to know about.
Enjoy the remainder of your Friday, and we’ll see you right back here tomorrow for the Saturday edition, the weekend edition of The Epoch Times News Brief. For now, let’s all continue to watch out for one another, and have an absolutely superb day today—an awesome weekend as well—and bye for now.
