Relatives, lawmakers and other supporters of a trucker sentenced to 110 years in prison after an explosive brake-failure accident that left four people dead rallied in Denver Wednesday to plead for clemency.

Supporters of Rogel Aguilera-Mederos say the sentence is deeply unjust. Truck drivers around the country have taken up his cause, using hashtags such as #NoTrucksToColorado and #NoTrucksColorado.

Speaking at the rally at the Colorado Capitol, Leonard Martinez, one of the lawyers representing Aguilera-Mederos, said the injustice of such long sentences needs to be addressed, not only by reforming sentencing laws but also by looking at the actions of prosecutors and judges.

“This fight is not just for him but for all,” he said.

The Colorado judge has said mandatory minimum sentencing laws forced him to impose the long prison term after Aguilera-Mederos was convicted of vehicular homicide and other charges. 

Aguilera-Mederos’ family said in a statement that they do not want to minimize the loss of those killed in the crash but are calling on Colorado Governor Jared Polis to “take immediate action” to reduce the sentence for the 26-year-old man with no criminal record. He was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol and fully cooperated with investigators, supporters said in a statement. More than 4.5 million people have signed an online petition asking for a commutation. 

Polis, a Democrat, said Tuesday he was reviewing a clemency application. 

Prosecutors asked for a reconsideration of the sentence after the outcry, but they also said that the driver declined plea deal negotiations and that the convictions recognize harm caused to crash victims. On Tuesday, District Attorney Alexis King filed a motion asking the judge to consider the issue quickly.

Aguilera-Mederos’ trial attorney, James Colgan, said Wednesday that the district attorney, who inherited the case from her predecessor, could have dropped some of the charges against him if she wanted a different sentence to be reached, given the state’s laws. He said prosecutors can file extra charges against a defendant in hopes of persuading them to accept a plea bargain.

Colgan said he was open to having either the governor or the judge decide a new, fair sentence. He declined to say what that might be. 

“When there’s tragedy on both sides, there’s got to be a happy medium, because ruining someone’s life isn’t going to make life better for the victims,” Colgan said.

Aguilera-Mederos testified that he was hauling lumber when the brakes on his semitrailer failed as he was descending a steep grade of Interstate 70 in the Rocky Mountain foothills in spring 2019. His truck plowed into vehicles that had slowed because of another wreck outside Denver, setting off a chain-reaction wreck and a fireball that consumed vehicles and melted parts of the highway. 

He wept as he apologized to the victims’ families at his December 13 sentencing.

“I am not a murderer. I am not a killer. When I look at my charges, we are talking about a murderer, which is not me,” he said. “I have never thought about hurting anybody in my entire life.”

Prosecutors argued that he should have used a runaway ramp designed for such situations. Aguilera-Mederos, for his part, said he was struggling to avoid traffic and trying to shift to slow down. 

District Court Judge Bruce Jones said at sentencing that mandatory minimum sentencing laws required consecutive sentences on 27 counts of vehicular assault, assault, reckless driving and other charges. “I will state that if I had the discretion, it would not be my sentence,” the judge said.

The crash killed 24-year-old Miguel Angel Lamas Arellano, 67-year-old William Bailey, 61-year-old Doyle Harrison and 69-year-old Stanley Politano. Relatives of victims supported at least some prison time at his sentencing hearing.
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A ban on some educational material in York, Pennsylvania, has been lifted a year after the issue attracted national attention. VOA’s Nukhbat Malik has more.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the emergency use of an antiviral COVID-19 pill, the pill’s maker Pfizer Inc. said Wednesday.

The company says the pill, which is to be taken with another antiviral drug, ritonavir, is 90% effective in preventing hospitalization and death in high-risk people.

“The efficacy is high, the side effects are low and it’s oral. It checks all the boxes,” Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic told The Associated Press. “You’re looking at a 90% decreased risk of hospitalization and death in a high-risk group—that’s stunning.”

The pill is the first at-home treatment for the virus and is approved for use in those 12 and older who are at high risk.

Pfizer says it’s ready to start delivery of the drug immediately in the U.S. and will produce 120 million courses in 2022.

The U.S. government has a contract with the company for 10 million courses priced at $530 per course.

The drug will be sold under the name Paxlovid and will have to be taken every 12 hours for five days once COVID-19 symptoms appear. Potential users of the new drug will have to show a positive virus test.

Drug giant Merck is also working on a similar drug.

Despite the promise, health officials say getting a vaccine is still the best way to stave off the worst effects of the virus. 

Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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The U.N. Security Council has adopted a resolution introduced by the U.S. aimed at facilitating aid to Afghanistan, where war and international sanctions have left the country near a humanitarian disaster and economic collapse.

The Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in mid-August after 20 years of war against a U.S.-led coalition.

The West has since frozen $9.5 billion in aid and assets to the aid-dependent country of more than 40 million people, who are also facing a harsh winter.

The Security Council resolution, passed unanimously Wednesday, said, “This resolution provides an exemption from the U.N. Security Council assets freeze against listed members of the Taliban and associated entities solely for the provision of humanitarian assistance and other activities that support basic human needs in Afghanistan, which the council will review in one year.”

Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Agence France-Presse the resolution’s approval was a “good step.” He also expressed hope the approval would “speed up” the removal of financial sanctions on entities with links to the Taliban.

Separately, the U.S. Treasury Department acted Wednesday to ease sanctions against Kabul, saying it would issue licenses to ensure that some international aid could flow to Afghanistan, as long as it did not reach individuals sanctioned by the U.S.

The licenses also will allow Afghans living abroad to send money to their families in Afghanistan.

The U.S. has designated Afghanistan’s Taliban and the related Haqqani network as terrorists, restricting their access to international institutions and external funding that supported the country’s economy before the withdrawal of U.S. forces this year and the swift ouster of the previous government.

The global community funds up to 80% of Afghanistan’s budget. Without greater access to foreign money, many economists predict, the Afghan economy could shrink by about 30% this year, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.

Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press and Reuters.
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For those people without resources or family, the holidays can be incredibly difficult and lonely. A group of Russian-speaking retirees in Los Angeles decided to do something to help some people feel less alone. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
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An advertising-technology billionaire has formally resigned his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and rebuked the faith over social issues and LGBTQ rights in an unusual public move. 

Jeff T. Green has pledged to donate 90% of his estimated $5 billion advertising-technology wealth, starting with a donation to a LGBTQ-rights group in the state, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

In an unusual public step, Green said in a Monday resignation letter to church President Russell M. Nelson that he hasn’t been active in the faith widely known as Mormon for more than a decade but wanted to make his departure official and remove his name from membership records. 

“I believe the Mormon church has hindered global progress in women’s rights, civil rights and racial equality, and LGBTQ+ rights,” he wrote. Eleven family members and a friend formally resigned along with him. He will donate $600,000 to the group Equality Utah.

The church didn’t immediately return a message from The Associated Press seeking comment Tuesday, but in recent years has shown a willingness to engage on LGBTQ rights that is unusual for a conservative faith. While it maintains its opposition to same-sex marriage, the faith didn’t block a 2019 ban on so-called conversion therapy in Utah and in November high-ranking leader Dallin Oaks said in a speech that religious rights and LGBTQ rights can coexist. 

Green, for his part, said most church members “are good people trying to do right,” but he also worries about the faith’s transparency around its history and finances.

Green, 44, now lives in Southern California. He is the CEO and chairman of The Trade Desk, an advertising technology firm he founded in 2009.

He also mentioned concerns about a $100 billion investment portfolio held by the faith. It was the subject of an Internal Revenue Service whistleblower complaint in 2019, from a former employee who charged the church had improperly built it up using member donations that are supposed to go to charitable causes.

Leaders have defended how the church uses and invests member donations, saying most is used for operational and humanitarian needs, but a portion is safeguarded to build a reserve for the future. The faith annually spends about $1 billion on humanitarian and welfare aid, leaders have said. 

The church has also come under criticism for conservative social positions. Women do not hold the priesthood in the faith, and Black men could not until the 1970s.

In recent years, though, the faith has worked with the NAACP and donated nearly $10 million for initiatives to help Black Americans. It has also worked with Equality Utah to pass a state LGBTQ nondiscrimination law, with religious exemptions.

Another prominent onetime Latter-day Saint sued the faith this year, accusing it of fraud and seeking to recover millions of dollars in contributions. James Huntsman is a member of one of Utah’s most prominent families and brother of a former governor. The suit was later tossed out. 

 
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U.S. President Joe Biden laid out a new concerted effort Tuesday to combat the surging omicron variant of the coronavirus, dispatching federal health care workers to short-handed hospitals, pre-positioning the national stockpile of medical equipment around the country and offering 500 million free COVID-19 test kits to Americans.

Biden detailed his attack plan in a White House address as the number of new coronavirus cases in the U.S. is markedly increasing again, with 143,000 recorded on Monday, along with another 1,300 deaths. Nearly three-fourths of the new cases are linked to the highly transmissible omicron variant. 

But Biden said that fully vaccinated people, and especially those who have gotten booster shots, can safely celebrate the upcoming Christmas and New Year’s holidays with family and friends. 

“We should all be concerned about omicron, but not panicked,” he said. 

He warned, however, “If you’re not fully vaccinated, you have reason to be concerned.” Biden said the 40 million unvaccinated people in the United States “have an obligation, quite frankly, a patriotic duty, to your country” to get inoculated. 

Moreover, he emphasized, “Your choice [whether to get vaccinated] can be a choice between life and death. Please get vaccinated. It’s the only responsible thing to do.” 

But even with the growing omicron threat, he said the United States is not returning to the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, when thousands of businesses and schools were shut down. 

“Absolutely no,” Biden said. 

He told Americans, “I know you’re tired. I know you’re frustrated. We’ll get through this. There’s no challenge too big for America.” 

The government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said about 204 million Americans, or 61%, are fully vaccinated, up from less than 1% at the beginning of 2021. But only 60.8 million people so far have gotten booster shots that health experts say provide the most protection against the omicron variant.

Biden said about 40 million Americans have not gotten any vaccination shots, many of them objecting to the government’s effort to get more people inoculated, saying it violates their freedom to make their own medical choices.

The president, however, said vaccine mandates he has imposed on government workers and the military, and is hoping to require at large companies with 100 or more employees that could affect 84 million workers, are “not to control your life, but to save your life.” 

Among some groups of people, getting vaccinated remains controversial — often, according to surveys, those who voted for former President Donald Trump in his unsuccessful 2020 reelection bid against Biden. 

Trump, a coronavirus victim while president, was booed by some supporters at an appearance in the southwestern state of Texas over the weekend when he told them he had gotten a booster shot.

Biden, who also has gotten a booster shot, said it was “one of the few things” he and his predecessor agree on, the need to get a booster shot in the arm.

The White House said the actions Biden announced Tuesday “will mitigate the impact unvaccinated individuals have on our health care system, while increasing access to free testing and getting more shots in arms to keep people safe and our schools and economy open.”

Biden said he is mobilizing an additional 1,000 military doctors, nurses and other health care workers to send to hospitals that need them in January and February. The White House said emergency medical response teams have been dispatched to six states with a shortage of health care workers. 

The U.S. is also expanding hospital bed capacity on an emergency basis ahead of the expected surge of the omicron variant cases, the White House said, while deploying hundreds of ambulances and emergency medical teams to transport patients to open beds.

A White House fact sheet on Biden’s address said the government has hundreds of millions of N-95 face masks, billions of gloves, tens of millions of hospital gowns and more than 100,000 ventilators in its strategic national stockpile, “all ready to ship out, if and when states need them.”

It said there are now 20,000 free COVID-19 testing sites across the U.S., and that the government is buying a half-billion at-home, rapid test kits for distribution to Americans who want them, starting next month.

The White House said that in recent months the government had added 10,000 vaccination sites across the country and now has 90,000. It plans to add new pop-up vaccination sites at some scattered spots across the U.S. and said private pharmacies are adding workers to administer more vaccinations.

 
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The United States believes bilateral talks with Russia over its massive troop buildup along the Ukrainian border could start in January, the State Department’s top diplomat for Europe said Tuesday, even as Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the U.S. and its allies for tensions in the region.

Karen Donfried, assistant secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs, told reporters that the U.S. and Russia would agree on a specific date to begin talks on Moscow’s demands that NATO give up any military activity in Eastern Europe and Ukraine.

But she warned, “We have made clear that any dialogue must be based on reciprocity, address our concerns about Russia’s actions, and take place in full coordination with our European allies and partners.”

“Let me be clear, there will be no talks on European security without Europe,” Donfried said.

Russia has deployed 100,000 troops along its border with eastern Ukraine, according to Western estimates, after unilaterally annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014. The U.S. has expressed concern that Russia could invade Ukraine early next year but does not believe Putin has decided whether to launch an attack.

U.S. President Joe Biden warned Putin two weeks ago during a virtual summit that the U.S. and its allies would impose devastating economic sanctions against Russia if it invades Ukraine.

Biden has ruled out a ground deployment of U.S. troops in the event of a Russian attack on Ukraine, but Washington has been sending small arms and ammunition to the Kyiv government, along with Javelin missiles the U.S. says Ukraine should use only for defensive purposes.

Putin, speaking to a meeting of Russia’s top military leaders, blamed the West for “tensions that are building up in Europe.”

As part of the upcoming bilateral talks with the U.S., Putin is demanding that NATO, the post-World War II Western military alliance, deny possible membership to Ukraine and other former Soviet satellite countries, while curbing its military deployments in Central and Eastern Europe.

Putin said the Kremlin wants “long-term, legally binding guarantees” from the West, as opposed to “verbal assurances, words and promises” that it says it can’t trust.

The Russian leader contended that if the U.S. and NATO place missile systems in Ukraine, it will take only minutes for them to reach Moscow.

“For us, it is the most serious challenge—a challenge to our security,” he said,

“What is happening now, tensions that are building up in Europe, is [the U.S. and NATO’s] fault every step of the way,” the Russian leader said, ignoring Moscow’s takeover of Crimea.

“Russia has been forced to respond at every step,” Putin contended. “The situation kept worsening and worsening, deteriorating and deteriorating. And here we are today, in a situation when we’re forced to resolve it somehow.”

Putin said Moscow hopes for “constructive, meaningful talks with a visible end result—and within a certain time frame—that would ensure equal security for all.”

“Armed conflicts, bloodshed is not our choice, and we don’t want such developments,” Putin said. “We want to resolve issues by political and diplomatic means.”

Some material in this report came from Reuters and the Associated Press.
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