New York
2 people arrested after hanging banner about 'the power of love' on Empire State Building antenna
NEW YORK (AP) — Two people got to the top of the Empire State Building's antenna and unfurled a banner about "the power of love" at midday Wednesday, before descending, embracing, taking selfies and ultimately being arrested.
Dressed in black and wearing masks — but not tethers, it appeared — the two balanced on a narrow ledge and appeared to kiss atop the New York skyscraper's antenna, which rises 1,454 feet (443 meters) above midtown Manhattan, news helicopter video showed. The banner, reading "when the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace," waved in the wind.
Just after 12:30 p.m., they began to climb down, efficiently picking their way along the latticework of metal to a wider ledge, where one seemed to set up a piece of electronic equipment and got down on one knee. After the two kissed again and hugged, the other person took selfies with an outstretched left hand, as if examining a ring.
Police took the two climbers into custody after 1 p.m.; their names weren't immediately released. No one was injured, police said.
Onlookers gaped from the sidewalks near the Art Deco office tower.
It wasn't clear how the pair gained access to the antenna, which rises well above public areas of the 102-story building. The building's management said in a statement that the episode was "unauthorized" and posed no danger to
anyone in the building. But the management didn't immediately address questions about how the two reached the antenna and what interactions, if any, they had with security workers.
Illinois
Sweeping review of grand jury presentations underway in Chicago following misconduct revelations
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Department officials are conducting a sweeping review of more than 1,000 grand jury presentations made by Illinois prosecutors following the dismissal of a high-profile case over misconduct, the top federal prosecutor for Chicago said on Wednesday.
Andrew Boutros, the U.S attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said the massive review will include all pending grand jury proceedings in his district as well as other presentations by prosecutors going back almost 20 years. It was sparked by revelations of grand jury misconduct that forced prosecutors to abandon a closely watched case against four activists who protested outside a federal building during last year's immigration crackdown in the city.
"It's going to be a massive review, a comprehensive review and it is underway," said Boutros, who was in Washington for an unrelated news conference. Boutros said the process is meant to ensure that his prosecutors have "acted ethically" and to provide "assurances and confidence" that other pending cases have not been tainted by similar issues.
The Justice Department dropped charges against the activists in May after a judge scrutinized allegations of misconduct, which included a prosecutor meeting with a grand juror outside proceedings and other jurors who disagreed with the case being dismissed prevented from participating.
When the case was dismissed, Boutros told a judge that the conduct was upsetting, adding that: "No one acted with the intent to mislead, your honor."
The judge overseeing the case took the extraordinary step last month of releasing the transcripts of the presentation made by prosecutors, who were seeking to secure an indictment against the activists in the most high-profile cases to come out of the crackdown that rippled across the nation's third-largest city and its suburbs last year.
The transcripts showed that one of the grand jurors called the case a "crock of (expletive)." The grand juror was subsequently excused from the proceedings.
Nevada
Book that Tupac Shakur murder suspect wrote is clear for use in trial, judge rules
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A book co-written by the man who prosecutors allege ordered the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur can be used in trial, a judge ruled Tuesday.
The defense attorney for Duane “Keffe D” Davis tried to bar the 2019 memoir “Compton Street Legend” from being used in trial, which is scheduled to begin Aug. 10, as well as statements Davis had made to police in 2008 and 2009.
Davis, 63, faces one charge of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang in the drive-by shooting of the rapper in Las Vegas.
Shakur was in a black BMW on Sept. 7, 1996, in Las Vegas with Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight when a white Cadillac pulled up beside them at a red light near the Las Vegas Strip, and gunfire erupted. Shakur was shot multiple times and died six days later, while Knight survived with minor injuries.
Shakur’s death is considered one of the most notorious unsolved murders in the United States. The case had gone cold until Davis began making public statements about it, including in a book he co-wrote in which he said he was in the Cadillac and provided the weapon used to shoot Shakur. The book revived detectives’ investigation, and Davis was arrested in September 2023. Davis pleaded not guilty.
The state’s case hinges on the book Davis co-authored about his time in the gang South Side Compton Crips and statements he made in YouTube interviews.
Michael Sanft, his attorney, argued that the book was fictionalized to make a profit, and that it was unclear which parts — if any — Davis actually wrote. He also argued that statements Davis made to police in 2008 and 2009 should not be used in trial because Davis thought he had immunity due to a proffer agreement that allowed him to speak to detectives without being prosecuted.
Judge Carli Kierny determined that Davis adopted the statements in the book as his own, regardless if he wrote the whole book. She said he made multiple statements describing the book as the “real truth.” She also found the statements he made to law enforcement to be voluntary, but expressed concern that Davis was told in 2008 that he would not be prosecuted for what he said in the interview.
Marc DiGiacomo, chief deputy district attorney in Clark County, said those interviews were no longer considered inadmissible when Davis chose to write and speak about the events. The state has the right to prove that what Davis wrote is true by using those interviews, he said.
“Had he decided to never write the book, he would not, probably, have ever been prosecuted for the crime,” DiGiacomo said.
2 people arrested after hanging banner about 'the power of love' on Empire State Building antenna
NEW YORK (AP) — Two people got to the top of the Empire State Building's antenna and unfurled a banner about "the power of love" at midday Wednesday, before descending, embracing, taking selfies and ultimately being arrested.
Dressed in black and wearing masks — but not tethers, it appeared — the two balanced on a narrow ledge and appeared to kiss atop the New York skyscraper's antenna, which rises 1,454 feet (443 meters) above midtown Manhattan, news helicopter video showed. The banner, reading "when the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace," waved in the wind.
Just after 12:30 p.m., they began to climb down, efficiently picking their way along the latticework of metal to a wider ledge, where one seemed to set up a piece of electronic equipment and got down on one knee. After the two kissed again and hugged, the other person took selfies with an outstretched left hand, as if examining a ring.
Police took the two climbers into custody after 1 p.m.; their names weren't immediately released. No one was injured, police said.
Onlookers gaped from the sidewalks near the Art Deco office tower.
It wasn't clear how the pair gained access to the antenna, which rises well above public areas of the 102-story building. The building's management said in a statement that the episode was "unauthorized" and posed no danger to
anyone in the building. But the management didn't immediately address questions about how the two reached the antenna and what interactions, if any, they had with security workers.
Illinois
Sweeping review of grand jury presentations underway in Chicago following misconduct revelations
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Department officials are conducting a sweeping review of more than 1,000 grand jury presentations made by Illinois prosecutors following the dismissal of a high-profile case over misconduct, the top federal prosecutor for Chicago said on Wednesday.
Andrew Boutros, the U.S attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said the massive review will include all pending grand jury proceedings in his district as well as other presentations by prosecutors going back almost 20 years. It was sparked by revelations of grand jury misconduct that forced prosecutors to abandon a closely watched case against four activists who protested outside a federal building during last year's immigration crackdown in the city.
"It's going to be a massive review, a comprehensive review and it is underway," said Boutros, who was in Washington for an unrelated news conference. Boutros said the process is meant to ensure that his prosecutors have "acted ethically" and to provide "assurances and confidence" that other pending cases have not been tainted by similar issues.
The Justice Department dropped charges against the activists in May after a judge scrutinized allegations of misconduct, which included a prosecutor meeting with a grand juror outside proceedings and other jurors who disagreed with the case being dismissed prevented from participating.
When the case was dismissed, Boutros told a judge that the conduct was upsetting, adding that: "No one acted with the intent to mislead, your honor."
The judge overseeing the case took the extraordinary step last month of releasing the transcripts of the presentation made by prosecutors, who were seeking to secure an indictment against the activists in the most high-profile cases to come out of the crackdown that rippled across the nation's third-largest city and its suburbs last year.
The transcripts showed that one of the grand jurors called the case a "crock of (expletive)." The grand juror was subsequently excused from the proceedings.
Nevada
Book that Tupac Shakur murder suspect wrote is clear for use in trial, judge rules
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A book co-written by the man who prosecutors allege ordered the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur can be used in trial, a judge ruled Tuesday.
The defense attorney for Duane “Keffe D” Davis tried to bar the 2019 memoir “Compton Street Legend” from being used in trial, which is scheduled to begin Aug. 10, as well as statements Davis had made to police in 2008 and 2009.
Davis, 63, faces one charge of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang in the drive-by shooting of the rapper in Las Vegas.
Shakur was in a black BMW on Sept. 7, 1996, in Las Vegas with Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight when a white Cadillac pulled up beside them at a red light near the Las Vegas Strip, and gunfire erupted. Shakur was shot multiple times and died six days later, while Knight survived with minor injuries.
Shakur’s death is considered one of the most notorious unsolved murders in the United States. The case had gone cold until Davis began making public statements about it, including in a book he co-wrote in which he said he was in the Cadillac and provided the weapon used to shoot Shakur. The book revived detectives’ investigation, and Davis was arrested in September 2023. Davis pleaded not guilty.
The state’s case hinges on the book Davis co-authored about his time in the gang South Side Compton Crips and statements he made in YouTube interviews.
Michael Sanft, his attorney, argued that the book was fictionalized to make a profit, and that it was unclear which parts — if any — Davis actually wrote. He also argued that statements Davis made to police in 2008 and 2009 should not be used in trial because Davis thought he had immunity due to a proffer agreement that allowed him to speak to detectives without being prosecuted.
Judge Carli Kierny determined that Davis adopted the statements in the book as his own, regardless if he wrote the whole book. She said he made multiple statements describing the book as the “real truth.” She also found the statements he made to law enforcement to be voluntary, but expressed concern that Davis was told in 2008 that he would not be prosecuted for what he said in the interview.
Marc DiGiacomo, chief deputy district attorney in Clark County, said those interviews were no longer considered inadmissible when Davis chose to write and speak about the events. The state has the right to prove that what Davis wrote is true by using those interviews, he said.
“Had he decided to never write the book, he would not, probably, have ever been prosecuted for the crime,” DiGiacomo said.
