Phoenix police chief suspended over dismissed protest cases

PARANOID CONSPIRACY THEORY VS FREE SPEECH

By JACQUES BILLEAUD

FILE - In this June 18, 2019, file photo, Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams addresses the audience at a community meeting in Phoenix. Williams has been given a one-day suspension after lawyers hired by the city issued a report that heavily criticized her agency's role in a now-discredited gang case file against demonstrators at a protest against police brutality. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)


PHOENIX (AP) — Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams was given a one-day suspension after lawyers hired by the city issued a report that heavily criticized her agency’s role in a now-discredited gang case against demonstrators last fall at a protest against police brutality.

The report released Thursday said the decision to charge 15 protesters with assisting a street gang was made without seeking input from Phoenix police’s gang enforcement unit. It also said the agency didn’t have credible evidence to support the claim that the protesters were members of an anti-police gang called “ACAB,” meaning “All Cops Are Bastards.”

Concluding that ACAB is a slogan rather than a group, the outside lawyers said they “found no credible evidence to support the assertion that ACAB is a criminal street gang, that it organized the protest of October 17, or was prone to violence.”

The gang charges were later dismissed at the request of prosecutors. The city is asking the Arizona Attorney General’s Office to investigate any criminal matters arising from the report.

Three assistant chiefs were removed from those roles, and a sergeant at the center of the report was put on administrative leave.

The report came a week after the U.S. Department of Justice announced a widespread investigation of the Phoenix Police Department to examine whether officers have been using excessive force and abusing people experiencing homelessness.

The probe also will examine whether police have engaged in discriminatory policing practices and will work to determine if officers have retaliated against people engaged in protected First Amendment activities. The police force has come under fire in recent years for its handling of protests and the high number of shootings.

In another new report on police actions after a protest, the law firm hired by the city also examined a “challenge coin” circulating among Phoenix officers that depicted a gas mask-wearing demonstrator getting shot in the groin with a pepper ball and contains a vulgar comment about his injury.

The image on the police souvenir closely resembled a protester who was shot with a pepper ball during a 2017 protest outside a rally held by then-President Donald Trump in downtown Phoenix. Video of the encounter, which also showed the protester kicking a smoke canister back at police officers, became viral on social media.

The lawyers said they couldn’t determine who created the coin, but noted it was circulated among officers in late 2017, while they were on city property and on the clock. A second slogan on the coin was supportive of Trump. Internal investigations are being conducted into the circulation of the coin.

In an interview, City Manager Ed Zuercher, who disciplined Williams, acknowledged that the reports portray Phoenix police as having a problem with protesters who are exercising their free-speech rights. He said Williams will reemphasize that the agency is committed to protecting those rights.

Zuercher defended his decision to suspend Williams for only one day, noting the reports found the police chief wasn’t aware of the gang charges until after they were filed and didn’t learn of the challenge coin’s existence until she was asked about it in a deposition in August 2019. The deposition was part of a lawsuit that alleged Phoenix police violated the free-speech rights of the protesters outside the 2017 Trump rally.

Zuercher said the chief is now holding employees accountable for their actions. “She is from the community,” Zuercher said. “And she is the right chief to continue reforming this department.”

The city’s outside lawyers concluded the decision to charge protesters was made by Phoenix police and prosecutors at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.

“We further found that police and prosecutors ignored expert-established criteria for identifying true criminal street gangs, and similarly ignored established protocol for processing the gang classification,” the report said. “Instead, police began considering anti-police protestors generally as ‘criminal street gangs’ based upon statements by a source of highly questionable credibility.”

The police department didn’t respond to a request for comment on the reports.

“In these cases, we made mistakes,” County Attorney Allister Adel said of the gang cases. “As an agency charged with doing justice, we must be willing to admit this. And, moreover, we must be willing to correct them.”

 

Hungry ghost festival

RowenCreator

August 9, 2021

Hungry Ghost festival

8th of August 2021 is the 1st day of the chinese Lunar calendar.

it is also about hungry ghost festivals......

Card: 5 of pentacles

Artist Cleo Lim

Country: Singapore

Festival of the Hungry ghosts

Zhong Yuan Jie (中元节); hungry ghost festival, falls on the middle of the seventh month of the Lunar calaendar. In Singapore, the first; seventh; fifteenth and last day of the month are significant.

According to history the festival have been celebrated as early as 1873 and another native malay name for the festival is Sumbayang Hantu (praying to the Ghosts).

The Origins of the hungry ghost festival is mainly a Chinese festival which have both buddhist and Taoists religions basis.

The Focus of the Taoist is that one this month wandering souls should be appeased. Whereas in the Buddhist teaching; it is on filial piety.

In the Taoist beliefs; there are three main deities, the Tian Guan Da Di, heavenly king, who accords merits, the Di Guan Da DI, Earthly king, who accords sins and crimes; and the Shui Guan Da Di, the king of the water realms, who helps mortals avoids dangers.

On the 15th day of the 1stlunar month is the birthday of the Tian Guan Da DI

On 15th day of the tenth lunar month is the birthday of the Shui Guan Da Di

On 15th day of the Seventh lunar month is the birth day of Di Guan Da Di

On Zhong Yuan Jie, the Di Guan Da Di will be on earth to record the sins and bad deed of men.

It is similarly during this month that the gates of hell are open and the realms of the hungry ghosts are close to the realms of the human. Hence on the first day, devotees will burn offerings to the ghosts and to avoid trouble rom them.

Buddhists, on the other hand, have traditionally celebrated the Hungry Ghost Festival as the Yu Lan Pen (盂兰盆) Festival. Yu Lan Pen is a transliteration of the Sanskrit name for the Buddhist Ullambana Festival. Yu lan means to “hang upside down” in Chinese, while pen in this context refers to a container filled with food offerings.7 Yu lan pen thus refers to a container filled with offerings to save one’s ancestors from being suspended in suffering in purgatory.8 The festival, which originated from the story of Mu Lian, commemorates his filial piety towards his mother.9 The legend is also believed to be the origin of the Chinese custom of making offerings and praying for one’s ancestors during this annual festival.
=========================================================================

The Five of pentacles is a time of need and a time for reflection on what are needs and what are desires.

The Art portrayal is an abstract art which shows the paper offerings which are burnt during the Chinese hungry ghost festivals.

The orange flames and the smoke, beyond the human eyes, various shapes and sizes of ghosts come to feast. Yearly due to their desire for an end to the suffering of being ghost and also for the attempt to transcend their current existence to a higher plane of existence.

Similar the worries of material wealth and comfort confront us daily.

It makes us think of the current state and unable to focus on what is our purpose and truths of what we can achieve later in life.

Should we be hungry ghosts roaming the world only seeking for material comfort?

Or rather should we worry on other matters in life?

Editor’s note

We should never lose sight of our true goals in life. Many trials and challenges will face us.

Like worries of money, worries of health, worries of food. We should not drown in worries and forget that salvation is in sight.

=========================

Lawsuit: US withholding wildfire fuel break information

By SCOTT SONNER

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Conservationists are accusing federal land managers of illegally withholding information about environmental assessments used to justify plans to create fuel breaks to slow wildfires by clearing forests and shrubs across six western states with little if any public oversight.

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act in federal court in Reno this week against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

A lawyer for the group says he’s disappointed the Biden administration is continuing the “obstructionist tactics” of the Trump administration, which first announced the plans last year.

The center is seeking more details about potential projects on federal rangeland across 348,000 square miles (901,300 square kilometers) — an area twice as big as the states of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio combined.

The government announced plans in November 2020 to begin mapping out the fuel breaks in Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho and Utah.

Fuel breaks involve clearing extended stretches of vegetation to slow the progress of fires. The bureau has said that assessments of more than 1,200 fuel breaks dating to 2002 found that 78% helped control wildfire and 84% helped change fire behavior.

The new lawsuit filed Monday says the blueprint adopted in environmental impact statements approved in January allow the activity to occur in an area that is home to at least 25 threatened or endangered species “with minimal public notice and no formal opportunities for public comment.”

The Center for Biological Diversity first filed a FOIA request for the plan’s supporting data in March with the bureau, which is overseen by the U.S. Interior Department.

“Unless enjoined and made subject to a declaration of the Center’s legal rights by this court, BLM will continue to violate the Center’s right to timely determination under FOIA,” the lawsuit states.

Scott Lake, a staff attorney for the center, says the agency is months late in responding to the FOIA requests “so it appears they’ve quite determined to keep this information secret.”

“It’s dismaying to see the government continue to prioritize secrecy over transparency, especially in the management of public lands, where transparency should be a no-brainer,” Lake said in an email to The Associated Press.

“And it’s unfortunate to see this administration continue the obstructionist tactics of the last one,” he said.

Tyler Cherry, the Interior Department’s press secretary, said in an email to AP on Thursday the department had no immediate comment. Neither did the bureau, an agency spokesperson said.

The Bureau of Land Management’s fuel break plan doesn’t authorize any specific projects. Instead, its analysis can be used to OK treatments for projects involving prescribed fires, fuel breaks and other measures to prevent or limit massive blazes that have worsened in recent decades.

As wide as 500 feet (152 meters), the breaks would be established along roads and federal rights-of-way. If all 11,000 miles (17,700 km) envisioned are finished, the breaks cumulatively would stretch the equivalent distance between Seattle and South Africa.

Extreme drought conditions have left trees, grass and brush bone-dry throughout many Western states, making them ripe for ignition. Climate change has made the region warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.

The center filed a notice of intent to sue over the fuel break plans in January along with the Sierra Club, Western Watersheds Project and Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

They said the bureau had failed to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service regarding impacts to threatened and endangered aquatic species as required by the Endangered Species Act.

THIRD WORLD USA 

Ruling helps protect homeless people from having cars towed

By GENE JOHNSON

FILE - In this Oct. 30, 2017, file photo, Stanley Timmings is seen through the door of the RV where he was living with his girlfriend on the streets of Seattle. The Washington Supreme Court issued a key decision on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, protecting people who are living in their vehicles from having them towed. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)


SEATTLE (AP) — Washington’s Supreme Court issued a key decision Thursday that helps protect people living in their vehicles from having them towed, in a case that drew widespread attention amid Seattle’s housing crisis.

The justices held that it was unconstitutionally excessive for Seattle to impound a homeless man’s truck and require him to reimburse the city nearly $550 in towing and storage costs. Further, the court said, vehicles that people live in are homes and cannot be sold at a public auction to pay their debts — eliminating a financial incentive for towing the cars in the first place.

“It’s a big step forward,” said Jim Lobsenz, a lawyer who represented Steven Long, the homeless man who challenged his truck’s impoundment in 2016. “The ruling says you have to take into account the financial resources of poor people before you impose these fines and costs.”

The decision is one of the first by a state high court to interpret a 2019 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that says state and local governments — not just the federal government — must abide by the Constitution’s ban on excessive fines, said Bill Maurer, an attorney with the libertarian-leaning Institute for Justice.

“What’s important about today’s decision is it sets out a way for a court to decide whether a fine is excessive ... and adopts the analysis that you have to look at the circumstances of the defendant,” Maurer said. “A $500 fine to Bill Gates — he’s probably got that in his couch. To someone who’s living in his truck, it’s ruinous.”

Long was 56, working part time as a janitor and living in his old pickup truck when police had it towed because it was parked in an unused, city-owned, gravel lot for more than three days.

He spent the next three weeks living outdoors — without his tools, sleeping bag and nearly all of his other possessions, which were in the vehicle. He had been trying to save for an apartment but couldn’t work without his tools.

A city magistrate waived his $44 fine for the parking violation but required Long to reimburse the city for some of the impoundment costs. The magistrate let him retrieve the truck just before it was to be sold at auction and put him on a $50-a-month payment plan.

In a unanimous decision, the high court said the truck’s impoundment and the payment plan violated the U.S. Constitution’s ban on excessive fines, set out in the Eighth Amendment. The justices also found that Long’s truck constituted a homestead, and thus he would be entitled to protection from having it sold to pay his debts.

“It is difficult to conceive how Long would be able to save money for an apartment and lift himself out of homelessness while paying the fine and affording the expenses of daily life,” Justice Barbara Madsen wrote.

The court said it did not mean to imply that officials can never impound a vehicle, as cities and counties have an interest in keeping their streets clear, but it noted that “the offense of overstaying one’s welcome in a specific location is not particularly egregious.” The court also said officials should inquire about a person’s ability to pay at impoundment hearings.

Lobsenz said vehicles in such cases are typically sold at auction because their owners can’t afford to pay the impoundment fees. The towing company gets a cut of the sale price, and the city gets the rest. Often, the cars are purchased by “vehicle ranchers,” who then rent them back to the prior owner.

But if cities or towing companies can’t sell them at auction, he said, there’s little point in having them impounded: “What are they going to do with it? We won’t have towing companies profiting off the misery of people who can’t afford to pay.”

Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes said in a statement that the ruling will have “wide reaching implications for how Mayors and City Councils from every Washington city respond to people living in their vehicles on public property.”

Municipal organizations, including the International Municipal Lawyers Association, had urged the court to side with the city.

“There is no reasonable or reliable process for municipalities to individually evaluate the owner of each vehicle subject to impoundment to attempt to determine that owner’s ability to pay,” the group wrote in a friend-of-the-court brief. “Moreover, the result would create a means to avoid parking regulations that would essentially allow persons to live, indefinitely, on municipal property with no recourse for the public.”

Seattle argued that while homelessness is an urgent problem, the city must be allowed to enforce its parking laws evenly.

The three-day rule is meant to ensure that people don’t store junked vehicles on public streets, Seattle’s lawyers said. The city has suspended enforcement of the law amid the COVID-19 pandemic and is instead collecting waste from RVs being used as homes.

The city also portrayed Long as obstinate, arguing that while he claimed the truck was inoperable, he managed to drive it to a friend’s home 20 minutes away after picking it up from the tow company. He could have avoided having it impounded by simply moving it one block away during the week before it was towed, the city said.

But in a court brief, civil liberties organizations described requirements that people move their vehicles from street to street as part of “a long history of unconstitutional policies and practices that have primarily excluded and displaced Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color impacted by poverty.”

Long, who is Native American, continues to live in the region — in a different truck.

“It’s great I could help other people living in their vehicles,” he said Thursday in a statement released by his lawyer. “This decision certainly will help a lot of people.”

New Zealand loses its precious ‘Rings’ series to Britain
By NICK PERRY

FILE - In this Oct. 26, 2012, file photo, some of the costumes, props and memorabilia created for the "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" movies are displayed in a mini-museum at Weta Cave in Wellington, New Zealand. New Zealand has long been associated with "The Lord of the Rings" but with the filming of a major new television series suddenly snatched away, the nation has become more like Mordor than the Shire for hundreds of workers. (AP Photo/Nick Perry, File)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand has long been associated with “The Lord of the Rings” but with the filming of a major new television series suddenly snatched away, the nation has become more like Mordor than the Shire for hundreds of workers.

In a major blow to the nation’s small but vibrant screen industry, Amazon Studios announced Friday it would film the second season of its original series, inspired by the books of J.R.R. Tolkien, to Britain.

“The shift from New Zealand to the U.K. aligns with the studio’s strategy of expanding its production footprint and investing in studio space across the U.K., with many of Amazon Studios’ tentpole series and films already calling the U.K. home,” the company said in a statement.

The move came as a blow to many in New Zealand. The production is one of the most expensive in history, with Amazon spending at least $465 million on the first season, which just finished filming in New Zealand, according to government figures.

The series employed 1,200 people in New Zealand directly and another 700 indirectly, according to the figures.

“This is a shock to everyone,” said Denise Roche, the director of Equity NZ, a union representing performers. “I really feel for all the small businesses, the tech people who invested in this for the future. Nobody had any inkling.”

Roche said people feel let down by Amazon, although she added that the industry was resilient.

Amazon said the as-yet untitled series takes place on Middle-earth during the Second Age, thousands of years before the events depicted in Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” books and the subsequent films directed by Peter Jackson.

Filming began last year but was delayed due to the coronavirus. Post-production on the first season will continue in New Zealand through June before the show premieres on Prime Video in September next year.

The move to Britain comes just four months after Amazon signed a deal with the New Zealand government to get an extra 5% rebate on top of the 20% — or $92 million — it was already claiming from New Zealand taxpayers under a screen production grant.

Many locations around the world compete for productions by offering similar, generous rebates.

At the time of the deal, New Zealand’s Economic Development Minister Stuart Nash said the production would bring economic and tourism benefits to the country for years to come and create “an enduring legacy for our screen industry.”

Nash said Friday the government had found out only a day earlier that Amazon was leaving and he was disappointed by the decision. He said the government was withdrawing the offer of the extra 5%.

Amazon said it no longer intended to pursue collecting the extra money. But it will still walk away with at least $92 million from New Zealand taxpayers.

“The international film sector is incredibly competitive and highly mobile. We have no regrets about giving this production our best shot with government support,” Nash said. “However, we are disappointed for the local screen industry.”

New Zealand became synonymous with Tolkien’s world of orcs, elves and hobbits after Jackson directed six movies in the South Pacific nation. “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “The Hobbit” trilogy combined grossed nearly $6 billion at the box office.

When Amazon Studios first announced it would film in New Zealand, it said the pristine coasts, forests, and mountains made it the perfect place to bring to life the primordial beauty of early Middle-earth.

The large ensemble cast includes Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Sophia Nomvete and Lloyd Owen.

POSTMODERN COMPANY TOWN

Nevada lawmakers start study of Sisolak’s ‘Innovation Zones’

By SAM METZ

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Nevada lawmakers kicked off a study committee on Thursday about an economic development proposal that would allow technology companies to exercise powers similar to those of local governments, if they own land and promise investment.

Gov. Steve Sisolak and the company Blockchains Inc. want lawmakers to create jurisdictions called “Innovation Zones” that would be semi-autonomous and governed by three supervisors, two of whom would initially be appointed by the technology company that owns the zone.

Despite the proposal’s tepid reception, Sisolak’s policy director DuAne Young and representatives and lobbyists for Blockchains appeared to remain wholly committed to the idea. They submitted a bill draft that was almost identical to the original proposal that circulated in February and was presented to lawmakers behind closed doors.

Blockchains representatives said they could only experiment with applications of their digital ledger technology if they had more autonomy than local government allowed.

“Fitting an Innovation Zone community into an existing county is not reasonably feasible,” said Blockchains Executive Vice President Lee Weiss.

Rural county commissioners, he added, “cannot reasonably devote time to govern their existing county, plus a new innovation zone with completely different infrastructure and goals.”

The proposal first appeared in Gov. Steve Sisolak’s State of the State address but was never introduced in the Legislature after resistance from local officials, environmentalists and progressive groups who likened it to 19th century company towns — an assertion both the governor and company deny.

Sisolak framed the proposal as a vehicle to diversify Nevada’s economy. But amid opposition, it was scaled back to a study to assuage concerns and allow lawmakers, local officials and the public to get their questions answered, the governor said.

Although the company did not appear in the proposal’s draft language, it was pushed behind the scenes by lobbyists for Blockchains, a digital record-keeping company that owns almost half of rural Storey County, in the desert east of Reno.

Construction and trade unions spoke in favor of the proposal and said constructing a “smart city” could provide high-paying construction jobs. Storey County representatives said they supported efforts to incentivize tech companies to come to Nevada but didn’t understand why the company felt they couldn’t build their city under current governmental structures.

Under the initial proposal, any technology company that possesses 78 square miles (202 square kilometers) of land and promised to invest $1.25 billion could apply to form an Innovation Zone where a governing body could create court systems, impose taxes and make land and water management decisions.

___

Sam Metz is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

5 Famous Company Towns

1. Pullman, Illinois: An ambitious social experiment that failed. In 1884, George Pullman completed construction of a...
2. Hershey, Pennsylvania: A chocolate king’s industrial utopia. In 1900, Milton Hershey sold the successful caramel...
3. Steinway Village, New York: An escape from labor organizers. In 1853, German immigrant Henry Steinway founded a...
4. Roebling, New Jersey: A town that helped build some of America’s most famous bridges. In the 1840s, Prussian...

5 Famous Company Towns - HISTORY

US agency to join with New Mexico on air pollution study

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is joining forces with New Mexico regulators and a private company to study air pollution and climate change.

Officials announced the partnership with New Mexico-based Sceye Inc. on Thursday. They said they are still working on the specifics of the endeavor, how much it will cost and how it will be funded.

The five-year study will use high-altitude blimp-like platforms positioned in the stratosphere above New Mexico to monitor air quality and emissions from the oil and gas industry and other sources.

“Until now, atmospheric science was based on a network of ground air quality monitors with some additional information we would get from airplanes and satellites. Not anymore,” said New Mexico Environment Secretary James Kenney.

Parking Sceye’s airships in the stratosphere — about 12 miles (19 kilometers) up — for a longer period of time will result in unprecedented environmental data that can be used to develop more accurate atmospheric maps that look at greenhouse gases, particulate matter, ground-level ozone and other pollutants and how they are transported.

Officials said they hope that leads to better solutions for regional air quality problems.

Once a memorandum of understanding is in place, the EPA and Sceye can enter into a public-private cooperative research and development agreement. That will determine how the data is shared.

EPA officials said the effort will build upon previous collaborations with NASA to help advance knowledge on the use of high-altitude measurements for monitoring emissions and concentrations on the ground.

Kenney noted that New Mexico has only seven air quality inspectors for more than 60,000 oil and gas wells in the state.

“So ensuring compliance remotely, in this case from the stratosphere, is absolutely game changing for us,” he said.

The study is expected to begin next year.

New Mexico Economic Development Secretary Alicia J. Keyes said the partnership has been in the works for about a year and that aside from producing data, it marks an important investment in science as the state looks to diversify its economy.

New Mexico taps US pandemic relief to help harvest chile


1 of 5
This July 12, 2021 image shows green and red chile ristras on display at a roadside stand in Hatch, New Mexico. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico will use federal relief funds to boost wages among chile pickers and processors to $19.50 an hour in an effort to ensure adequate labor.

Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham released new details Thursday of the state’s strategy to ensure a complete harvest of its most iconic crop.

The administration announced last week that it would funnel up to $5 million in federal pandemic relief to shore up the harvest of New Mexico’s renowned green and red chile crop. Harvest typically takes place in late summer and early fall, arriving a few weeks early this year as farmers increase reliance on seedlings to jumpstart the crop.

“It is an all-important symbol of New Mexican agriculture and commerce,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “I will do everything in my power to support the industry in their efforts to harvest and process a successful 2021 crop.”

5 of 5
This July 12, 2021 image shows a basket of fresh harvested green chile waiting to be roasted at Grajeda Hatch Chile Market in Hatch, New Mexico. Farmers say the season is shaping up to be a good one, with transplanted fields in southern New Mexico among those where workers are busy picking peppers. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

The wage subsidies are through chile growers, labor contractors and processors.

Chile is a roughly $50 million annual cash crop for New Mexico farmers that would ideally employ about 3,000 people at farms and processing plants during the harvest, according to the New Mexico Chile Association.

Some Republican state legislators want the state to cut off a $300 weekly federal supplement to unemployment benefits in hopes of increasing the farm-labor supply.
HURTING FARMERS,WORKERS AND DEMOCRATS

Lujan Grisham says agricultural labor shortages are a persistent industry issue in New Mexico and beyond. She is running for reelection in 2022.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M THE CHOSUN

Lee freed on parole, showing Samsung’s might in South Korea

By KIM TONG-HYUNG


Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong speaks to the media outside of a detention center in Uiwang, South Korea, Friday, Aug. 13, 2021. Embattled Samsung leader Lee apologized for causing public concern upon being paroled from prison Friday with a year left on his sentence for crimes related to the explosive corruption scandal that toppled South Korea’s previous president. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung leader Lee Jae-yong walked out of prison Friday a year early in a parole decision demonstrating the conglomerate’s outsized influence in South Korea as well as continuing leniency for bosses who commit corporate corruption.

Wearing a gray suit and a mask, Lee left the prison near Seoul to a barrage of camera flashes and bowed in apology over the anger ignited by his case, which was related to the explosive corruption scandal that toppled South Korea’s previous president in 2017. Hundreds of demonstrators standing behind police lines simultaneously shouted slogans denouncing or welcoming his release.

“(I) caused too much concern to our people. I am very sorry,” said Lee, who had spent the past months in prison relaying his business decisions through visiting employees. He said he was keeping close attention to the “concerns, criticism and huge expectations” about him and then walked into a black sedan without answering reporters’ questions.

Lee, 53, is the third-generation heir of a business empire that runs everything from technology, construction, and financial services companies to hospitals, an amusement park and baseball and soccer clubs. The crown jewel, Samsung Electronics, singlehandedly represents about 20% of South Korea’s entire stock market value and one-fourth of its total exports.

Lee’s parole marked an about-face for the government of President Moon Jae-in, who after being elected in 2017 pledged to curb the excesses of “chaebol,” or South Korea’s family-owned conglomerates, and end their cozy ties with the government. Park Soo-hyun, Moon’s spokesperson, said in a statement that Lee’s release benefited “national interest” and pleaded for people’s understanding.

Business leaders and key members of Moon’s government had endorsed Lee’s early release in recent months, citing Samsung’s vital role in South Korea’s export-driven economy and the increasing challenges it faces in the global semiconductor market.

Freeing Lee became politically convenient for Moon after recent polls indicated South Korea’s public — years removed from the angry protests that filled the streets with millions of demonstrators in 2016 and 2017 — largely favored Lee’s release. With the next presidential election coming in March 2022, the ruling liberals are hoping to win votes among the millions of South Koreans who own Samsung shares, some experts say.

Samsung had no immediate comment to Lee’s release.

Lee served a total of 18 months of a 30-month sentence for embezzling millions of dollars from corporate funds to bribe then-President Park Geun-hye to ensure her government’s support for a 2015 merger between two Samsung affiliates that tightened his control over the corporate empire.

His case was part of a massive corruption scandal that triggered nationwide protests and led to the impeachment and ouster of Park, who has been jailed since 2017 and won’t be released until 2039 if she fully serves her term.

Even with his release, Lee isn’t out of the legal woods. He appeared at the Seoul Central District Court on Thursday for another trial over alleged stock price manipulation, auditing violations and other financial crimes related to the 2015 merger. His lawyers have insisted the allegations in that case were not criminal acts but were normal business activities.

In including Lee among some 800 prisoners who were granted paroles ahead of Sunday’s Liberation Day, which celebrates Korea’s independence from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II, the Justice Ministry cited unspecified economic concerns related to the pandemic and global markets.

Lee runs the Samsung conglomerate in his capacity as vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, a major global provider of computer memory chips and smartphones.

Lee was originally sentenced in 2017 to five years in prison on the corruption charges but was freed after 11 months in February 2018 following a Seoul High Court ruling that reduced his term to 2 ½ years and suspended his sentence, overturning key convictions and reducing the amount of his bribes.

The Supreme Court returned the case to the high court in 2019, ruling that the amount of Lee’s bribes had been undervalued. Lee was jailed again in January this year following a retrial.

Almost no one had expected Lee to serve his full sentence through July 2022.

After avoiding the issue for months, Moon signaled a step change in May when he told reporters that his government will consider both the intensifying competition in the semiconductor sector and public feelings before deciding whether to grant Lee an early release.

Moon’s office initially distanced itself from Lee’s release, saying paroles are up to the Justice Ministry, before using its statement on Friday to address criticism that it revived a tradition of preferential treatment for convicted tycoons.

While Lee has always been in control of Samsung regardless of whether he was in the boardroom or a prison cell, it’s unclear how quickly he could formally resume his management role. He would need the justice minister to officially approve his return to work as the law bans people convicted for major financial crimes from returning to work for five years after their release. He is widely expected to get that approval.

Samsung showed no obvious sign of trouble while Lee was in prison. It has reported robust profit during the coronavirus pandemic, seeing larger demands for its consumer electronics products and chips used in computing devices and servers as the virus forced millions to stay at home.

But there were also views that Lee’s prison term compromised Samsung’s speed in major investments when it needs to spend aggressively to stay competitive in semiconductors and other technologies.

While Samsung remains dominant in memory chips, which are used to store information, it’s apparently falling behind rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. in the race for high-tech chips designed to perform a broader range of functions.

The demand for advanced chips is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years, driven by 5G wireless services, artificial intelligence and self-driving cars. Some analysts say Samsung will become more active in pursing merger and acquisition deals to gain such technologies as Lee will be able to sign off on investments more easily.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Purdue Pharma director grilled on proposed opioid settlement

By GEOFF MULVIHILL

1 of 6
Jayde Newton helps to set up cardboard gravestones with the names of victims of opioid abuse outside the courthouse where the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy is taking place in White Plains, N.Y., Monday, Aug. 9, 2021. Purdue Pharma's quest to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of OxyContin is entering its final phase with the grudging acceptance of most of those with claims against the company. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

NEW YORK (AP) — Purdue Pharma’s quest to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of OxyContin and its other prescription opioid painkillers entered its final phase Thursday with the grudging support of many of those who have claims against the company.

But the lingering opposition from some state attorneys general took center stage in the first day of a confirmation hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court about the company’s reorganization plan.

Questions from a lawyer representing Connecticut voiced the concern that states are being forced to accept the deal with both Purdue and members of the wealthy Sackler family who own the company.

The attorney, Irve Goldman, essentially asked John Dubel, a corporate turnaround expert who was installed as a member of Purdue’s board of directors two years ago, why states should not go to trial.

“Is it a reasonable view for a creditor or sovereign state to want their claims resolved through an adversarial process so their view of justice should be served?” Goldman asked.

Dubel said he understood that states have that complaint, but added: “We have 95-plus percent support from all of our creditors” and that the Sacklers’ planned contribution to the settlement is “fair and equitable.”

The confirmation hearing, which could stretch out over two weeks, comes nearly two years after Purdue filed for bankruptcy as a way to settle about 3,000 legal claims filed against it by state and local governments, Native American tribes and others.

In addition to cash from the Sacklers, the company is asking a judge to approve the company being remade into an entity that’s no longer owned by the family, with its profits dedicated to abating the opioid crisis.

As Dubel noted, most of the groups with claims against Purdue are on board with the settlement plan after years of negotiations.

Those with claims against Purdue were given a vote on the settlement, though U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Drain is not bound by the results. Well over 90% of most groups of creditors said they approved, according to court filings.



On Thursday, an official with the company that counted the votes acknowledged that the support reflects only those who cast ballots. The majority of the more than 600,000 people and entities who were eligible to vote did not.

A group of Democratic state attorneys general were among the last to get on board. Until July, top state government lawyers were divided nearly evenly on whether to accept the deal.

Several of the opponents signed on after Purdue agreed to make many company records public and Sackler family members agreed to accelerate payments and increase payments. They’ve now agreed to provide a total of $4.5 billion in the form of cash and control of a charitable fund.

In response to questions, Dubel also said that the possibility that the settlement would fall apart is why the company has not shared with the court communications from its lawyers about the legal risks faced by the Sacklers.

“We are still not certain that this plan will be confirmed,” he testified, “and we don’t have full certainty that the payments will be made over the next nine years.”

An analysis commissioned by a group of state attorneys general before changes in the agreement found the estimated wealth of the Sackler family could rise from $10.7 billion in 2020 to $14.6 billion by 2030 because of investment returns and interest.

David Sackler, a grandson of one of the three brothers who nearly 70 years ago bought the company that became Purdue, made a written declaration in court supporting the settlement and could be called to testify on it in the coming days.

Activist groups held a rally Monday outside the White Plains, New York, courthouse where Drain is based, urging him not to approve the deal.

“They are opioid profiteers who have caused mass death and they sit pretty in this court,” one of the activists, Megan Kapler, said at the protest. “And it’s not right.”

The Purdue case is the highest-profile part of a vast landscape of litigation over an opioid epidemic that has been linked to more than 500,000 U.S. deaths since 2000, including those from prescription drugs such as OxyContin and generic painkillers, along with illicit drugs including heroin and illegally produced fentanyl.

In recent months, claims against other companies in the drug industry have gone to trial in California, New York and West Virginia, with more on tap in coming months. Some other firms are also settling. Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and distribution companies AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson are seeking state and local government acceptance of a deal worth $26 billion. Purdue’s case was separated from the others when the company filed for the bankruptcy protection.

The company says its plan could be worth $10 billion over time. Profits and money already in the company’s coffers would be used to abate the opioid crisis, funding treatment programs and education campaigns.

The value of the deal also includes the value of drugs Purdue is developing to reverse overdoses and inhibit addiction.

A portion of the money would also go to individual victims and their families. Payouts are expected to range from about $3,500 to $48,000.

Ed Neiger, a lawyer representing victims, said ahead of the hearing that he would tell Drain that it’s better to approve the settlement plan than to have years more of court battles with Purdue and the Sacklers.

“The plan must be analyzed in light of the alternative, not a comparison to the ideal,” Neiger said in an interview. “Five hundred thousand people have died as result of the opioid crisis thus far. If we go the all-out litigation route, another 500,000 might die before we see a penny from the Sacklers.”

___

Associated Press video journalist Ted Shaffrey in White Plains, New York, contributed to this report.