(DENVER) — A truck driver who was sentenced to 110 years in prison for a fatal accident in Colorado has been resentenced to 10 years after an outcry from family and advocates.
Gov. Jared Polis announced the commutation of Rogel Aguilera-Mederos’ sentence Thursday.
“I am writing to inform you that I am granting your application for a commutation,” Polis wrote. “After learning about the highly atypical and unjust sentence in your case, I am commuting your sentence to 10 years and granting you parole eligibility on December 30, 2026.”
Mederos was sentenced on Dec. 13 to 110 years in prison for a 2019 fatal crash on Interstate 70, outside Denver, that killed four people and injured several others — a sentence the judge said he wouldn’t have chosen if he had the discretion. Mederos testified that his brakes failed, but he was driving 85 mph when the speed limit was 45 mph and he drove past a runaway truck ramp before plowing into stopped traffic, police said.
He was found guilty by a Jefferson County jury of 27 counts — the most serious was first-degree assault, a class-three felony.
The number of the charges, mandatory minimum laws and a classification that mandates some sentences be served consecutively resulted in the lengthy sentence.
“The length of your 110-year sentence is simply not commensurate with your actions, nor with penalties handed down to others for similar crimes,” Polis said in his letter. “There is an urgency to remedy this unjust sentence and restore confidence in the uniformity and fairness of our criminal justice system, and consequently I have chosen to commute your sentence now.”
Jefferson County District Attorney Alexis King has filed a motion earlier this month asking for a sentence of 20 to 30 years instead. A hearing to reconsider the sentence had been scheduled for Jan. 13, 2022.
Among those advocating for a lesser sentence were the family members of some of those killed in the accident.
“I think we all can agree that [110 years] is excessive,” Duane Bailey, the brother of William Bailey who died in the crash, told “GMA,” but added that the jury “came to the correct decision to convict [Mederos].”
(BOULDER COUNTY, Colo.) — Thousands of people are being asked to evacuate immediately as winds fuel fast-spreading wildfires in Boulder County, Colorado.
Several small grass fires, sparked by downed power lines amid gusty winds in central Colorado, according to the Boulder County sheriff, have grown into raging blazes Thursday afternoon.
Louisville, Colorado, with a population of about 20,000, is being asked to evacuate, according to the Boulder Office of Emergency Management. The entire city of Superior, Colorado, with a population of about 13,000 people, is also being asked to evacuate.
The National Weather Service of Denver/Boulder described the situation in Louisville as life-threatening in an alert on Twitter Thursday afternoon, while urging people to leave immediately.
Centura Health’s Avista Adventist Hospital in Louisville started evacuating its patients, starting with its most critical, a Centura Health spokesperson told ABC News Thursday afternoon.
Six patients were taken to UCHealth Broomfield, which serves the Boulder area, due to injuries from the fires, a hospital spokesperson confirmed to ABC News.
Colorado fire officials told ABC News that the high winds are making it difficult to get aerial resources into the area to fight the fires.
Wind gusts topping 100 mph were reported in northern Jefferson County earlier Thursday, while parts of Boulder County saw gusts over 80 mph. The city of Boulder also reported wind gusts over 70 mph Thursday afternoon.
The Boulder area is currently suffering from extreme drought, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Agriculture.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has declared a state of emergency due to the fires in Boulder County, his office said.
“Prayers for thousands of families evacuating from the fires in Superior and Boulder County,” Polis tweeted. “Fast winds are spreading flames quickly and all aircraft are grounded.”
ABC News’ Jeff Cook, Dan Manzo, Jenna Harrison and Dan Peck contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday — their second conversation this month amid heightened fears of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The call, which the Biden administration said comes at Putin’s request, was the latest effort to defuse those tensions diplomatically.
But tens of thousands of Russian troops remain near Ukraine’s borders, and bellicose rhetoric from Russian officials and state propaganda have Western officials on edge still.
The U.S. and European allies have threatened unprecedented economic penalties for Moscow if it attacks Ukraine, nearly eight years after its forces seized the Crimean Peninsula and sparked a war in Ukraine’s eastern provinces known as Donbas.
Sanctions and other penalties have not brought that conflict to an end, with approximately 14,000 people killed and Russian-led separatists still fighting Ukrainian forces. U.S. officials say it’s unclear if Putin has decided to attack again in an all-out invasion, but Biden has already made clear U.S. forces will not come to Kyiv’s aid on the battlefield.
Instead, the Biden administration is hoping deterrence and diplomacy will stop Putin. A senior administration official said they “cannot speak to why the Russian side has requested the call,” but added both leaders believe there is “genuine value in direct leader to leader engagement.”
“I think we are at a moment of crisis and have been for some weeks now given the Russian build-up and that it will take a high level of engagement to address this and to try to find a path of de-escalation,” the official told reporters Wednesday.
In addition to the leaders’ call, U.S. and Russian diplomats will meet on Jan. 10, the two sides confirmed Tuesday, to discuss stated security concerns on either side.
“Open lines of dialogue, open lines of diplomacy have the potential to be constructive as we seek to de-escalate the potential for conflict in and around Ukraine,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said of the talks.
After those meetings, NATO will hold a meeting with Russia on Jan. 12, while the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a key security forum that has deployed a war monitor in eastern Ukraine, will hold a session Jan. 13.
“The Biden administration continues to engage in extensive diplomacy with our European allies and partners, consulting and coordinating on a common approach in response to Russia’s military build-up on the border with Ukraine,” Emily Horne, Biden’s National Security Council spokesperson, said in a statement.
But some European allies have called for greater involvement. The European Union “must be involved in these negotiations,” its top diplomat, Josep Borrell, told the German newspaper Die Welt.
“It’s about us. This is not simply the case for two states, i.e. America and Russia, or NATO and Russia — even if Moscow imagines it,” he added in the interview, published Wednesday.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said repeatedly the U.S. will not negotiate any arrangement about European security without first consulting European allies — speaking again to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy Wednesday, just as the two spoke before Biden and Putin’s first call this month.
He reiterated “unwavering” U.S. support for Ukraine, per Price, and “discussed efforts to peacefully resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine and upcoming diplomatic engagements with Russia” — a nod to both Thursday’s call and the Jan. 10 meetings.
Zelenskiy tweeted that he was assured of “full” U.S. support “in countering Russian aggression.” U.S. officials have already publicly rebuked Russia’s demand heading into talks — that Ukraine be barred from NATO membership, saying the Western alliance’s military activity in former Soviet states threatens Russia.
But other items on Russia’s public demands are not “unacceptable” and could be addressed through diplomacy, Blinken, Price and others have said — provided that Russia de-escalate as well by pulling back its forces from Ukraine’s borders.
Instead, while Russian state media reported Monday that more than 10,000 were withdrawn, the senior administration official said there’s still a “significant Russian troop presence in and around the border.”
The ominous language from Russian officials has also continued. Putin himself said Sunday that he is weighing “diverse” military and technical options if Russia’s demands aren’t addressed.
Amid that heightened threat, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv is making “emergency preparations” in case it evacuates non-emergency personnel or diplomats’ families, according to internal emails obtained by ABC News.
The embassy is seeking additional security staff to temporarily fill in next month, as the “permanent staff continue Emergency Preparations in case of Authorized or Ordered Departure” — when an embassy allows diplomats’ families and non-emergency personnel to relocate because of a threat.
A State Department spokesperson confirmed Wednesday they are “conducting normal contingency planning, as we always do, in the event the security situation severely deteriorates.” But they told ABC News they are not “currently considering evacuations of U.S. government personnel or American citizens from Ukraine.”
Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that during Biden’s call with Putin, Biden assured that the U.S. is not going to deploy offensive strike weapons in Ukraine.
“President Biden has clearly stated that the United States does not intend to deploy offensive strike weapons in Ukraine. Our president noted that this is one of the key points that are just included in our documents that we have handed over to the Americans and on which we want to continue substantive negotiations,” Ushakov told reporters after a telephone conversation between the presidents.
According to Ushakov, Putin said Russia will seek guarantees of its security.
“Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin outlined in detail the basic principles that were laid down in the documents we submitted, and stressed that negotiations on these three tracks are important for us, of course, but the main thing is that we need a result, and we will achieve a result in the form of ensuring guaranteed security of Russia,” Ushakov told reporters. “The US President, in principle, agreed with this point of view and reacted quite logically and quite seriously.”
Earlier this month, the State Department updated its travel advisory for Ukraine to include a warning about “increased threats from Russia.” The advisory had been at the agency’s highest level, “Level 4: Do Not Travel,” for months because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it now warns, “U.S. citizens should be aware of reports that Russia is planning for significant military action against Ukraine.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki issued a short statement Thursday following Biden’s call with Putin, saying Biden “urged Russia to de-escalate tensions with Ukraine,” and “made clear that the United States and its allies and partners will respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine.”
“President Biden also expressed support for diplomacy, starting early next year with the bilateral Strategic Stability Dialogue, at NATO through the NATO-Russia Council, and at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. President Biden reiterated that substantive progress in these dialogues can occur only in an environment of de-escalation rather than escalation,” Psaki said.
Also on Thursday, a senior White House official gave a readout of the call between Biden and Putin, saying the tone was “serious and substantive.”
According to the official, Biden outlined two paths forward — all depending on how Russia chooses to proceed.
“President Biden laid out two paths. Two aspects of the US approach that will really depend on Russia’s actions in the period ahead. One is a path of diplomacy, leading toward a de-escalation of the situation, and the other is a path that’s more focused on deterrence, including serious costs and consequences should Russia choose to proceed with a further invasion of Ukraine,” the official said.
“Those costs include economic costs include adjustments and augmentations of NATO force posture in allied countries and include additional assistance to Ukraine to enable it to further defend itself in its territory. as we’ve laid out previously,” the official added.
When asked if Putin had offered any further clarity on if he had made a decision on whether or not to further invade Ukraine, the official said there were “certainly no declarations to intention” in the conversation, but the U.S. will continue to monitor the situation to be ready for whatever Putin decides.
ABC News’ Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.
Queer Eye‘s sixth season kicks off Friday, when the Fab 5 heads to to Texas for what star Bobby Berk says is one of the best seasons ever.
“This season was very emotional, and I know that every season’s emotional, but this one’s more,” the interior designer explained. “Tan cried! Tan’s never cried. If you look back on every single episode we’ve ever done, almost 70 of them, Tan has never cried.”
Bobby said it was a jarring moment for everyone because, “All of a sudden, behind me, I start hearing this awkward, weird whimper and I look back and it’s Tan crying. And we were all taken out of the moment because we’ve never seen Tan be emotional before.”
Bobby says the upcoming season is a fresh start for the Fab 5 because the pandemic shut down production, allowing them time to relax and reflect after churning out five seasons since 2018.
“We were very burnt out. We were very exhausted,” Berk admits, saying he’d look back at older episodes and “see a lot of us on autopilot.” The time off, he says, allowed everyone to “reevaluate the things that are important… And it really re-energized us to get out there and help people.”
He says season six feels like season one “because we…had our hearts back in it.”
Food expert Antoni Porowskiadded, “We all really missed each other” during the production shutdown, so when everyone came back, “It was like, ‘Let’s go!'”
Aside from great stories and great heroes, Antoni adds this season sends “love to small businesses” and those deeply affected by the pandemic, as well as the “really crazy storms” that tore through Texas “just two weeks before we arrived.”
The recently announced documentary Carole King & James Taylor: Just Call Out My Name, which focuses on the friendship and musical collaboration between the two lauded singer/songwriters, premieres on CNN this Sunday, January 2, at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
The documentary takes as its starting point the concert that Carole King and James Taylor did in 2007 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the famous Los Angeles-area club The Troubadour, where they’d first played together in 1970. The ’07 show, which featured them performing songs like “You’ve Got a Friend,” led to a 2010 arena tour.
The film documents the tour and also features new interviews with King and Taylor, as well as with the now-legendary session musicians who played with them in 1970, 2007 and 2010, including guitarist Danny Kortchmar, bass player Lee Sklar and drummer Russ Kunkel.
In a preview clip featuring an interview segment with King and Taylor, Carole tells James, “When we first met and we sat down to play…it was like we had played together our entire lives. We had a musical language in common, and we had listened to a lot of the same things.”
Taylor responds, “I think that you and I probably just had the same musical DNA, musical sources who are probably the same…Of course, a lot of what I had been listening to was you.”
Carole King & James Taylor: Just Call Out My Name was directed and produced by Frank Marshall, who also directed HBO’s acclaimed Bee Gees documentary How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, and produced Hulu’s McCartney 3, 2, 1 docuseries.
Besides airing on CNN, the film will be livestreamed via CNN’s various apps, and then will be available on demand from January 3 through January 9.
(NAPLES, Fla.) — A maintenance worker who entered an unauthorized area of a Florida zoo and was attacked by a tiger could face criminal charges, authorities said. The tiger was shot and killed by responding authorities in order to free the man from the animal’s jaws.
The incident happened Wednesday at the Naples Zoo after it had closed to the public, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office said.
A member of a cleaning service contracted by the zoo to clean restrooms and the gift shop, but not the animal enclosures, had “entered an unauthorized area near a tiger that was inside its enclosure,” according to the sheriff’s office.
The man, identified by authorities as 26-year-old River Rosenquist of Naples, was possibly petting or feeding a male Malayan tiger, “both of which are unauthorized and dangerous activities,” when the attack occurred, the sheriff’s office said.
“Initial reports indicate that the tiger grabbed the man’s arm and pulled it into the enclosure after the man traversed an initial fence barrier and put his arm through the fencing of the tiger enclosure,” the office said.
Rosenquist called 911 to request help, according to the sheriff’s office. A deputy responded to the zoo around 6:30 p.m. and found the man with his arm in the tiger’s mouth. The deputy kicked the enclosure in an attempt to get the tiger to release the arm, but was “forced” to shoot the animal, authorities said.
“Our deputy did everything he could do in that situation and he ultimately made the only possible decision he could in order to save this man’s life,” Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said in a statement Thursday. “This was a tragic encounter at our world-class zoo facility. We value our community partnership with the Naples Zoo and their focus on conservation and education.”
The cleaner suffered serious injuries and was transported to an area hospital, authorities said. Lee Memorial Hospital Emergency Department confirmed to ABC News it had received a patient via medical helicopter from Naples with injuries related to a tiger attack.
The Malayan tiger, which is a critically endangered species, was killed in the shooting, according to a spokesperson for the zoo. The animal retreated to the back of the enclosure after it was shot and a drone that authorities flew inside showed it was unresponsive.
A veterinarian sedated the animal and examined it “when it [was] safe to do so,” and determined the tiger had died, the sheriff’s office said.
The sheriff’s office said Thursday it is working with state and federal prosecutors to investigate the “serious encounter” and determine whether criminal charges will be filed against Rosenquist.
The zoo will be conducting its own investigation, officials said.
The 8-year-old tiger, who the zoo confirmed was named Eko, came to the Naples Zoo from the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle in December 2019 and was introduced in February 2020. “Eko is a great ambassador for his species. When guests see him, we hope they fall in love and want to learn how they can do their part to save his cousins in the wild,” the zoo says on its website.
The zoo was closed Thursday and will reopen on Friday, according to its website. A conservation fund will be set up in Eko’s honor, zoo officials said.
“[We] thank our community for their understanding and for the messages and words of encouragement and support that have been flowing into us,” the zoo said in a statement.
(NEW YORK) — Thursday marks a week of travel woes across the country with more than 8,000 flight cancellations nationwide since Christmas Eve. As millions of Americans travel during what could be the busiest travel period since the start of the pandemic, airlines have been slammed with both winter weather and rising COVID-19 cases among flight crews.
Now, at least one major U.S. airline, JetBlue Airways, is signaling this weeklong crush of cancellations may just be the beginning.
JetBlue said on Wednesday it is preemptively canceling more than 1,200 flights over the next two weeks in order to have enough crews available to run a reliable operation.
“While the new CDC guidelines should help get crewmembers back to work sooner, and our schedule reduction and other efforts will further ease day-of cancellations, we expect the number of COVID cases in the northeast — where most of our crewmembers are based — to continue to surge for the next week or two,” the airline said in a statement. “This means there is a high likelihood of additional cancellations until case counts start to come down.”
On Thursday, more than 1,100 flights were canceled in the U.S. as of 2:30 p.m. ET.
Seattle Tacoma International has been impacted the most, holding the top spot for the most cancellations in the world for a third day in a row with nearly a third of all flights grounded. The airport added, “Staffing issues may bring further delays in operations.”
Alaska Airlines, whose main hub is in Seattle, is reporting call hold times of more than 10 to 20 hours.
“We strongly urge flyers with non-essential travel scheduled before January 2, 2022, to consider changing their travel to a later date using our flexible travel policy,” the airline said in a statement Wednesday.
The disruptions come as airports brace for the more than 10.5 million fliers estimated to fly from now until Jan. 3. The busiest New Year travel days are still ahead with Hopper forecasting 2.5 million could fly on Jan. 2 and Jan. 3.
Delta Air Lines is already projecting 200 to 300 daily cancellations for the upcoming weekend as “teams across [their] system continue to do all possible to mitigate constraints from increasing winter weather and the omicron variant.”
Experts say the COVID-19-related cancellations should be a reminder to holiday fliers to protect yourself as much as you can during travel.
“These cancellations are reasons why it’s important for people to wear the masks, wash their hands frequently and reduce movement around the cabin when you’re on a plane,” aviation expert Henry Harteveldt said. “It’s just really important. All of these are part of layers of safety to keep everyone as healthy as possible while traveling for the holiday.”
Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Songwriters Hall Of Fame
Longtime collaborators Justin Timberlake and Timbaland may be working on something new, based on footage that Timbo posted on Instagram showing himself vibing in the studio with JT and JT’s pal, Ant Clemons.
The video shows them listening to a song in the studio, and notably, the track features sound effects of a baby cooing — which Tim famously used on Aaliyah‘s smash hit, “Are You That Somebody?”
Clemons, who performed with JT on the post-Biden inauguration Celebrating America concert, is shown screaming delightedly while listening to the track and then exclaiming, “You brought the baby back! You should put the baby on this! And Lil Baby!”
“And DaBaby!” JT responds. “And MY baby!” — presumably referring to Phineas, Justin and his wife Jessica Biel‘s one-and-a-half-year-old son.
Timbaland captioned the video, “Soon to come” with a bunch of suspicious eye and explosion emojis.
Billboard reports that Timbo and JT worked together on earlier this year on a track on Justine Skye’s album, Space and Time. Tim also worked on JT’s most recent album. Man of the Woods.
ow we know what “Crazy” thing Dirty Honey was teasing.
Earlier this week, the “When I’m Gone” rockers posted a clip of Ozzy Osbourne‘s “Crazy Train” alongside a mysterious video featuring only the letter C. They then followed that up with more clips of songs featuring the word “Crazy” in the title — Heart‘s “Crazy on You,”Patsy Cline‘s “Crazy” and Gnarls Barkley‘s “Crazy” — alongside the letters R, A an Z, clearly spelling out “Crazy.”
Theories regarding why ranged from a possible covers collection to a new, original Dirty Honey song called “Crazy.” Well, the real answer is that Dirty Honey will be playing a cover of Prince‘s “Let’s Go Crazy” ahead of the NHL’s Winter Classic hockey game between the Minnesota Wild and the St. Louis Blues, taking place in the late Purple One’s hometown of Minneapolis on New Year’s Day.
Dirty Honey’s performance, which was filmed atop a frozen Minnesota lake, will air as part of TNT’s pre-game coverage, beginning 6 p.m. ET. You’ll also be able to download a studio version of the cover on January 1.
Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig has shared an update on the status of the band’s next album.
Speaking with Mark Hoppus on the Blink-182 bassist’s After School Radio show on Apple Music Hits, Koenig reveals that he and his band mates “almost have an album’s worth of songs” in the works.
“You could tinker with a song forever; change the arrangement, change the lyrics, whatever,” Koenig says. “But in that sense we’re close.”
“I have no idea how long it’ll take to finish, but we’re feeling really good about the new material,” he adds. “So yeah, a lot of studio time to come after the holidays.”
Vampire Weekend’s most recent album is 2019’s Father of the Bride, which spawned the singles “Harmony Hall” and “This Life.”
