Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. I’m Bill Thomas, we have some really intriguing stories to share with you right now, and here’s what’s going on.
Details are emerging about the suspect in Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden says it’s no secret the Secret Service needs more help, and federal prosecutors say a large group of people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach will not be charged.
Also, a large DNA testing company signs off on a massive class action lawsuit regarding a huge data breach, and new data is out concerning the job market and it doesn’t look good.
Things We Know About the Suspect of the 2nd Trump Assassination Attempt
Ryan Wesley Routh has been identified as the suspect. He was charged yesterday morning in a West Palm Beach federal court with a pair of violations, including possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with what’s referred to as an obliterated serial number. So you know, the 58-year-old Routh is being represented by a public defender.Routh was arrested after a Secret Service agent on Trump’s security detail engaged with the suspect at a golf course in Palm Beach, less than 500 yards from where Trump was golfing. The suspect fled in a vehicle, and authorities found a rifle at the scene before arresting Routh on a highway 48 minutes later.
The suspect has spent most of his life in North Carolina, but in 2018 he moved to Hawaii, where he and his 25-year-old son operated a company that builds sheds.
Routh has been very active on social media, and many previous posts indicate that he’s an avid supporter of Ukraine in the country’s war with Russia, which he calls a battle of “good versus evil.” Routh was active at a demonstration in Kyiv back in 2022, and had even been calling for Afghan soldiers to join the fight.
The suspect has also written a number of posts on X critical of Trump. Routh writes that he initially voted for Trump back in 2016. However, he later called Trump a great disappointment.
Earlier this year, Routh tagged Biden in a post, urging the president to “Keep America democratic and free,” and saying that democracy itself is on the upcoming ballot.
You should also know that over the last five years, Routh has made a number of small political contributions to ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic candidates and progressive causes.
Biden Comments on Secret Service Resources
Biden says that the Secret Service needs more agents and that Congress should take action, following the second assassination attempt against Trump in the last two months.Biden says he’s thankful Trump is fine, and that he doesn’t yet have a full report of the Sunday incident.
Biden says there’s no place for political violence in America, and that we resolve our differences at the ballot box, not at the end of the gun.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) points out that two assassination attempts in 60 days are unacceptable, and he’s calling for the Secret Service to ask Congress for whatever resources the agency needs to assist it in providing the best protection.
In case you missed this on Sunday, law enforcement officials say that Secret Service agents encountered the alleged shooter after discovering a rifle muzzle sticking through a chain-link fence on the outer perimeter of the Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach County, Florida.
An agent then engaged with the suspect, who fled the scene but was captured shortly after.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has said that security at the golf course was limited at the time because Trump is not the sitting president. Bradshaw says he thinks that next time Trump plays golf, there will likely be more law enforcement around the perimeter.
You should know that Trump has issued a post on Truth Social thanking both law enforcement and the Secret Service for their response to the incident.
You may recall, Trump was injured, but survived an assassination attempt a couple of months ago as he was speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. One person died and two others were injured in that shooting, and afterward, questions were raised about whether the Secret Service did enough to secure the rally site.
Prosecutors Turn Down Some Jan. 6 Cases
A top federal prosecutor says the Justice Department is turning down hundreds of cases in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.They’ve decided not to charge hundreds of people in connection with that breach.
The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew Graves, says that his agency is choosing to turn down the cases, even though the FBI says there’s enough evidence to prosecute.
Graves says the declined cases either don’t fit within the guidelines that prosecutors have been using, or prosecutors don’t think there’s enough evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Interesting to note, Graves says that prosecutors in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) established guidelines shortly after the breach, and they’ve generally focused on people who entered the Capitol, helped others enter the building, committed violence, or illegally carried weapons on Capitol grounds.
The DOJ prosecutors also previously reviewed cases involving obstruction of an official proceeding, a charge that had been applied in hundreds of cases before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled several months ago that prosecutors were using it too broadly.
The DOJ says that since the ruling, prosecutors have dropped the obstruction charges against about 60 defendants, while sticking with the charges for about 13 others.
The government also says that it’s still reviewing cases, and is not opposed to dropping the charges against approximately 40 people who’ve already been convicted.
Overall, federal prosecutors have so far charged more than 1,500 people with crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, breach.
23andMe Proposes $30 Million Payment for Data Breach
The genetic testing service 23andMe is offering to compensate millions of its customers who’ve been impacted by a significant data breach on the company’s platform.The company says it will shell out $30 million to nearly 6.4 million Americans affected by the breach, and is offering the victims access to a security monitoring system.
You should know that last year, a hacker breached the organization’s database and posted critical user information for sale on the dark web, including names, sex, date of birth, and genetic information.
23andMe is now offering the compensation as part of a recent proposed class action settlement filed only days ago in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The company “denies any wrongdoing whatsoever,” and says that as part of the reasonable settlement proposal, it will send users a link where they can delete all information related to 23andMe.
The company says it has added an extra layer of security since the breach, and the settlement is subject to court approval.
Interesting to note, the company’s reported revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2024 was $64 million, which is down 31 percent from a year earlier, prior to the breach.
As of yesterday, the company’s share price was trading at well under a dollar, which is down over 63 percent since the start of the year, and the company’s “extremely uncertain financial condition” was mentioned in the settlement proposal.
Employment Data Indicate Hiring Freeze, More Jobs Going to Immigrants
New numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) suggest that growing uncertainty by employers is causing them to stop hiring, and that a larger share of jobs is going to foreign-born workers.The fresh data shows that the economy added 142,000 new jobs in August, much less than previous consensus estimates of 160,000.
The numbers were released last week, and they also show that the number of foreign-born workers in the U.S. labor force increased by 1.3 million, while the number of native-born workers decreased by that same amount.
You should know that recent BLS jobs data has been subject to revision, and just last month, the bureau said there were 818,000 fewer jobs in March 2024 than it had initially reported.
An economist at The Heritage Foundation tells The Epoch Times that labor demand has been trending down since March 2022, when it was artificially high following the COVID pandemic. He says that firms are shifting toward part-time work and eliminating positions, and there’s no sign that conditions will get better any time soon.
However, some economists are more optimistic. They say the labor market is only cooling, not cracking, pointing out that there hasn’t yet been an uptick in layoffs. The more hopeful economists also point to uncertainty among employers regarding the upcoming election as another reason companies may have paused hiring.
Interesting to note, the labor participation rate for native-born Americans fell during the COVID-19 pandemic, and economists say that many of those jobs have since been filled by foreign-born workers.
And now, it looks like our time is just about up for today, so we’re going to call it a wrap for the Tuesday 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 William Shakespeare, who said: “A smile cures the wounding of a frown.”
Before we go, if you didn’t already know, September is Better Breakfast Month, and breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day.
For all of us here at The Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.
The Epoch Times News Brief program was written today by David Ross.
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 Tuesday, and we’ll see you right back here next time for another 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. Bye for now.
