The Full Belmonte, 4/16/2024
First Trump criminal trial begins with jury selection in New York hush money case
“Former President Donald Trump’s first criminal trial officially began this morning with jury selection for his hush money case – marking the first time a former American president has ever faced trial on criminal charges.
The case stems from a $130,000 payment in 2016 to adult film star Stormy Daniels from Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, to keep her quiet about an alleged affair with Trump. The former president has denied any relationship or wrongdoing.
During today's proceedings, Judge Juan Merchan ruled that the prosecution cannot play the "Access Hollywood" tape featuring Trump making lewd comments about women. The former president showed little visible reaction throughout the day -- and was seen in the courtroom with his eyes closed at certain points.
Jury selection is expected to take up to two weeks because of the massive pool of several-hundred potential jurors. Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records, and has pleaded not guilty to all counts.
Before walking into court, the former president slammed the trial as ‘an assault on America’ and an attack on a ‘political opponent,’ rather than a legitimate legal matter.
‘Nothing like this has ever happened before,’ he said. ‘This is political persecution … It’s a case that should have never been brought.’” [NBC News]
Day 1
Former President Trump in Manhattan criminal court with his legal team ahead of the start of jury selection. Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via AP
“The first trial against former President Trump is now underway — and it looks like it might take a while.
At least 50 potential jurors were dismissed today, the first day of jury selection, because they said they could not be impartial, per pool reports. It could take several days just to find 12 jurors.
Judge Juan Merchan declined to recuse himself from the trial today, and he rejected another effort by former President Trump's legal team to delay the proceedings.
Merchan scheduled a hearing for next week on prosecutors' claims that Trump violated the gag order in the case.
Trump ‘appeared to nod off a few times’ during the proceedings, the NYT's Maggie Haberman reports.” [Axios]
House Speaker Plans Separate Ukraine, Israel Aid Votes to Overcome Deadlock
By splitting up Senate bill, Mike Johnson aims to bypass GOP opposition on funding for Kyiv
“WASHINGTON—House Speaker Mike Johnson plans to bring separate bills funding Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan to the House floor, in a maneuver aimed at breaking a monthlong deadlock over a $95 billion foreign-aid package the Senate passed earlier this year.
Other congressional leaders of both parties and President Biden had urged Johnson to take up the Senate bill. Instead, Johnson is splitting the aid up in an effort to work around a large bloc of Republicans who have long opposed sending more money to Ukraine. Those GOP holdouts, together with some Democrats who have soured on more aid for Israel, could have been enough to sink a combined bill.
Speaking to reporters late Monday, Johnson said his ‘phone melted over the weekend’ with calls from GOP members about how to proceed. The Louisiana Republican said it ‘was the will of my colleagues to vote on these measures independently and not have them all sandwiched together as the Senate had done.’
He didn’t release the text of the bills and provided scant details, but he said he expected to finish votes on them this week. ‘We’ll be able to leave knowing that we’ve done our job here,’ he said.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said Congress needed to pass the supplemental spending bill to help Israel rebuild its antimissile and antidrone capacity. PHOTO: MICHAEL REYNOLDS/SHUTTERSTOCK
The proposal, while potentially helping the House sidestep an immediate hurdle, could complicate efforts to get the aid packages to Biden’s desk by forcing new action by the Democratic-controlled Senate, where lawmakers might not be on board with any changes planned in the House.
Johnson briefed colleagues on the details of the bills in a closed-door meeting of House Republicans. He has faced intense pressure to pass legislation to help rearm Israel following an attack by Iran and fulfill his long-stalled pledge to further fund Ukraine.
He also plans a fourth bill that includes a proposal to use seized Russian assets to help pay for aid to Kyiv. The fourth bill also includes the House legislation that forces a sale or ban of TikTok in the U.S. The legislation won’t have any provisions related to immigration, according to Republicans leaving the meeting. Johnson said he hadn’t determined whether the four bills, if passed, would be sent separately or as a package to the Senate….” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Supreme Court allows Idaho ban on gender-affirming care for minors to take effect as case continues
“While the underlying case concerns the constitutionality of a ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors, the court’s order did not address the merits of the issue – only whether the law could take effect for now.”
Read more at Washington Post
Justice Thomas misses Supreme Court session Monday with no explanation
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was absent from the court Monday with no explanation. The court sometimes, but not always, says when a justice is out sick. Read More at AP News
Bidens Paid Nearly $150,000 in Federal Income Taxes in 2023
The president, first lady and vice president all released their latest returns on Tax Day; Trump hasn’t released his returns in the past
“WASHINGTON—President Biden and first lady Jill Biden earned $619,976 in adjusted gross income in 2023, according to their annual tax returns released by the White House Monday.
The Bidens filed their tax return jointly and paid $146,629 in federal income tax, with an effective federal income-tax rate of 23.7%. They also paid $30,908 in Delaware income tax, and the first lady paid $3,549 in Virginia income tax.
The Bidens’ 2023 income was slightly more than their 2022 income of $579,514, and most of it came from their salaries. Biden earned $400,000 as president and Dr. Biden earned $85,985 from Northern Virginia Community College, where she teaches English and writing. Most of the rest of their income was from pensions and Social Security payments.
The Bidens released their tax returns on the April 15 deadline for most Americans, and the White House said the president has now released 26 years of tax returns dating back to his time representing Delaware in the Senate. The president resumed the presidential tradition of voluntarily releasing tax returns after former President Donald Trump had declined to release his returns.
The Trump campaign didn’t respond to requests for comment on whether he would release his 2023 returns.
In 2023, the Bidens made charitable contributions of $20,477, or 3.3% of their income. The donations were made to 17 different charities, including $5,000 to the Beau Biden Foundation, named for the Bidens’ late son. A White House release described the foundation as a charity ‘dedicated to ensuring that all children are free from the threat of abuse.’
Other recipients of charitable donations included the Women’s Wellness Space, a Philadelphia-based center for women affected by trauma founded by the couple’s daughter, Ashley Biden; The Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, an organization that provides compassionate care to those grieving the death of a military loved one; the Fraternal Order of Police Foundation, a volunteer fire company in Wilmington, Del., and St. Joseph on the Brandywine, the Catholic church in Wilmington where Biden frequently attends Mass.
Biden has continued to seek changes to the nation’s tax policies, including raising the top rate on wages and salaries to 39.6% for married couples with taxable income above $450,000.
The president, who is expected to draw a contrast with Trump on taxes in a Tuesday campaign speech in Scranton, Pa., Biden’s boyhood home, has outlined plans to raise taxes on wealthy individuals and extend tax cuts expiring after 2025 for those earning less than $400,000. Trump and Republicans support extending the tax law approved by Congress in 2017 that lowered individual and corporate tax rates.
Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, also released their 2023 tax returns, as well as state income-tax returns for California and the District of Columbia. They reported $450,299 in adjusted gross income in 2023, slightly less than 2022. The couple reported nearly $1.7 million in 2021, helped by book royalties and Emhoff’s departure from his law firm.
They paid $88,570 in federal income tax, for an effective federal rate of 19.7%. In 2023, the couple contributed $23,026 to charity, or 5% of their income.” [Wall Street Journal]
‘Rust’ Armorer Sentenced to 18 Months for Shooting Death of Cinematographer
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was reckless in handling the gun in the 2021 killing of Halyna Hutchins, judge says
“Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer in charge of weapons on the set of “Rust” where a cinematographer was fatally shot, was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison.
Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in a New Mexico court last month over the 2021 killing of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. The judge said she gave Gutierrez-Reed the maximum sentence because the armorer should have checked the prop gun for live rounds before it fired at the 42-year-old Hutchins.
Alec Baldwin, the film’s star and co-producer, was holding the weapon. Baldwin is set to go on trial in July on an involuntary-manslaughter charge. The actor has said he didn’t pull the trigger and wasn’t aware there was a live round in the gun.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said Gutierrez-Reed had time to load the gun safely and that she didn’t take accountability.
‘You were the armorer. The one that stood between a safe weapon and a weapon that could kill someone,’ the judge said. ‘You alone turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon. But for you, Ms. Hutchins would be alive, a husband would have his partner and a little boy would have his mother.’
Halyna Hutchins. PHOTO: HALYNA HUTCHINS/REUTERS
Prosecutors asked for the maximum sentence of 18 months, saying Gutierrez-Reed hasn’t expressed remorse for the killing. They cited jail calls in which she called the jury members stupid and a prosecutor a sexist slur.
Her lawyers said she has felt remorse. They are appealing the conviction and had asked for her sentence to be probation instead of prison time. Gutierrez-Reed was acquitted last month of a charge of tampering with evidence, according to court records.
Gutierrez-Reed and her father, armorer Thell Reed, asked the judge in their testimonies to limit her sentence. Gutierrez-Reed said her heart aches for the Hutchins family and she wasn’t a monster.
‘When I took on ‘Rust,’ I was young and I was naive, but I took my job as seriously as I knew how to,’ she said. ‘Despite not having proper time, resources and staffing when things got tough, I just did my best to handle it.’
A prosecutor didn’t immediately return a request for comment Monday.
Hutchins’s friends, colleagues and loved ones testified at Gutierrez-Reed’s sentencing hearing in Santa Fe, N.M., Monday. They said Gutierrez-Reed was negligent in her job as armorer and that Hutchins was kind and smart.
‘She was an amazing mom. She really loved her work. The day of her death ruined my entire life,’ Hutchins’s mother said in a video statement filmed in Ukraine that was translated into English. ‘This pain of loss does not end.’
The ‘Rust’ movie set days after the shooting. Authorities haven’t determined how live rounds made it onto the set of the low-budget Western outside Santa Fe, N.M. PHOTO: JAE C. HONG/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gutierrez-Reed, in a tan prison jumpsuit, repeatedly cried during the witness testimonies, wiping her eyes with a tissue.
Prosecutors said Gutierrez-Reed was unprofessional and sloppy on set and left guns unattended. Gutierrez-Reed, who was 24 at the time of the shooting, has said she isn’t sure how live rounds got into her ammunition boxes.
Authorities haven’t determined how live rounds made it onto the set of the low-budget Western outside Santa Fe. Live rounds are typically forbidden on film sets.
Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyers blamed the prop shop that provided the rounds and said she was a scapegoat who didn’t get the support she needed to do her job properly. They tried to have the involuntary-manslaughter charge dismissed by accusing the prosecution of misconduct during the investigation.
Joel Souza, the film’s director, was also wounded when the gun was fired during the scene rehearsal.
Souza in his testimony Monday said, ‘What I really want I can’t have. I want everyone damaged by Ms. Reed’s failures that day to find peace.’….” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Ship that caused bridge collapse had apparent electrical issues while still docked, AP source says
“The massive container ship that caused the deadly collapse of a Baltimore bridge experienced apparent electrical issues before it left port but set out anyway, someone with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Monday, hours after the FBI said it was investigating whether any laws might have been broken.” Read More at AP News
Bureau of Prisons to close California women’s prison where inmates have been subjected to sex abuse
“The beleaguered federal Bureau of Prisons said Monday it will close a women’s prison in California known as the “rape club” despite attempts to reform the troubled facility east of Oakland after an Associated Press investigation exposed rampant staff-on-inmate sexual abuse.” Read More at AP News
“Richmond, Virginia, imposed an 11 p.m. curfew for teens, following a spate of gun violence that has killed four teenagers in the last two weeks. Go deeper.” [Axios]
“Authorities in Nevada are asking the public for help to find two men caught on video damaging ancient rock formations at Lake Mead.” [NBC News]
”How the U.S. Forged a Fragile Middle Eastern Alliance to Repel Iran’s Israel Attack - The American-led effort was years in the making and hadn’t been battle-tested when Tehran launched its missile and drone barrage against Israel.” [Wall Street Journal]
Today's WorldView
By Ishaan Tharoor
with Sammy Westfall
Iran’s escalation with Israel shifts focus away from Gaza
A view from the southern Gaza Strip shows drones or missiles vying for targets in southern Israel, on April 14. (Atef Safadi/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
“After the retaliation, comes the retaliation. Israeli officials Monday said they would respond to the astonishing assault carried out two days prior by Iran that saw hundreds of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones launched from Iranian territory toward targets in the Jewish state. The Iranian barrage was successfully fended off by Israeli air defenses, backed by the United States and a number of the regional partners and allies. Nearly all of the Iranian launches were intercepted before they reached Israel. They inflicted no casualties.
For Tehran, the attack was a response to an Israeli operation that killed seven senior Iranian officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at an Iranian compound in Damascus, Syria. For Israel, the Iranian response demands its own reprisal. Gen. Herzi Halevi, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, said Monday that ‘the launch of so many missiles and drones to Israeli territory will be answered with a retaliation.’
What that would look like was unclear at the time of writing, though a new Israeli attack seemed in the cards. Iran and Israel have been locked for years in a tacit shadow war, punctuated by airstrikes, assassinations and acts of sabotage. But the current round of escalation has sharpened the prospect of open war between the two Middle East powers — a volatile explosion that would likely lead to spillover violence across the region.
Iran has signaled that it does not want to engage in a full-blown war, either on its accord or through key proxies like Lebanese Shiite faction Hezbollah. The regime in Tehran seemed to telegraph its retaliatory strike, which was rebuffed by the combined efforts of Israel, the United States, Britain and Arab states like Jordan, and was left claiming, at best, a symbolic victory. Hard-right members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government called for a forceful response, while other Israeli allies, including President Biden, urged restraint.
The back-and-forth drama has offered Netanyahu something of a diversion from the more immediate crisis at hand. The right-wing prime minister and his war cabinet have faced mounting international criticism for their management of the war in Gaza, which has led to the deaths of more than 33,000 Palestinians and a humanitarian catastrophe in the besieged territory. But the international response to the Iranian attack offered a reminder to Israelis of both the long-standing support they have in the West, as well as among their Arab neighbors in the region — such as the monarchies of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia that are similarly distrustful of Tehran’s ambitions and agenda.
For Palestinians, the escalation is a reminder of a status quo that existed before the Oct. 7 terrorist strike carried out by militant group Hamas, which triggered the current conflict. That deeper reality saw the political aspirations of millions of Palestinians undermined by an Israeli occupation regime that has no interest in giving them statehood, suppressed by their own dysfunctional leadership, and largely ignored by international diplomats, including U.S. and Arab officials more focused on the possibilities that could come with better integrating Israel into the region.
There were reports of fresh Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians in both Gaza and the West Bank over the weekend. ‘The world overwhelmingly supports Israel, turning a blind eye to Gaza’s plight,’ said 59-year-old Moreedd al-Assar, a resident of Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, to my colleagues. ‘We hold no significance, and the world won’t allow harm to its favored child, Israel.’
Iran, in its statements surrounding its strike on Israel, made no demands for a cease-fire in Gaza and linked their decision to the Israeli attack on their IRGC officers — rather than the suffering of Palestinians whose cause Tehran claims to champion. ‘After the Iranian attack, it looks like the war [in Gaza] has returned to the starting point, Israel versus Hamas,’ wrote Jack Khoury in Israeli newspaper Haaretz. ‘As such, more than six months after the battle started, there are still 133 Israeli and non-Israeli hostages praying to be set free, while Gaza remains destroyed and bleeding, without any horizon or vision for the day after.’
The focus Monday was on the need for Israel to show restraint. Iran appeared to have carefully calibrated its attack on Israel in such a way that Western governments all rushed to counsel Israel against significant retribution.
‘The attack was a failure,’ British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said repeatedly in a BBC television interview Monday morning, describing it as a ‘double defeat’ for Tehran in both military and geopolitical terms. ‘The right thing to do is not to escalate,’ he said, when asked how Israel should respond. ‘We are urging them as friends to think with head as well as heart, to be smart as well as tough.’
‘It’s about convincing against a response that escalates,’ French President Emmanuel Macron urged. ‘Isolate Iran, succeed in persuading the countries of the region that Iran is a threat, build up sanctions, strengthen pressures against nuclear activity,’ he said. ‘Then we can find a path to peace for the region.’
The shift in aperture away from Gaza may or may not last. ‘There are two scenarios: one is that American decision-makers realize that Netanyahu and his war cabinet are pulling NATO into a regional war with Iran, which is not in the interests of the U.S. or EU, and double down with massive pressure on Netanyahu to force a ceasefire in Gaza,’ said Fadi Quran, a member of the Al-Shabaka Palestinian policy network, to Politico.
‘The second scenario is that Netanyahu’s gamble with a regional war succeeds and Western leaders are cornered into allowing Israel to continue using starvation as a tactic in Gaza, attack [the southern Gazan city of] Rafah and pull the region closer to the abyss,’ he added.” [Washington Post]
China Surprises With Strong Start to Year as Factories Power Expansion
“China said its economy grew a faster-than-expected 5.3% in the first quarter, driven in large part by Beijing’s push to turbocharge manufacturing.”
READ MORE at Wall Street Journal
Calls for De-Escalation
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan addresses the U.N. Security Council during an emergency meeting in New York City on April 14.David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
“Israel’s war cabinet convened for a second day on Monday to discuss how to respond to Iran’s weekend attack on Israel. ‘We reserve the right to do everything in our power, and we will do everything in our power to defend this country,’ Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said. The cabinet’s voting members—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and opposition leader Benny Gantz—also debated diplomatic options to further isolate Iran.
Late Saturday, Tehran launched more than 300 missiles and armed drones at Israel in retaliation for Israeli forces’ strike on an Iranian consulate in Syria on April 1 that killed seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members, including a senior commander. Iran’s weekend operation marked the first time that Tehran conducted a direct military assault on Israel. According to Israel’s military, 99 percent of all aerial threats were intercepted.
Foreign leaders quickly condemned Iran’s attack while urging Israel to practice restraint. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday that Washington spent the past 36 hours ‘coordinating a diplomatic response to seek to prevent escalation.’ His comments add to U.S. President Joe Biden’s statement to Netanyahu on Sunday that the United States would not participate in and does not support an Israeli counterattack on Iran.
On Monday, the United Nations Security Council convened a second day of emergency meetings to address rising tensions in the Middle East, and G-7 and European Union leaders weighed adding new sanctions on Iran. Belgium, France, and Germany summoned their respective Iranian ambassadors to condemn the strikes; U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said now is the time to ‘step back from the brink’; and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said the United Kingdom does not support an Israeli retaliatory strike. U.S. and U.K. air forces helped Israel shoot down aerial threats in the attack.
Iran’s foreign ministry said on Monday that it does not seek further escalation in the Middle East, with Turkish, Jordanian, and Iraqi officials saying Tehran gave notice of its planned attack days before it occurred—though U.S. officials said Washington received no such warning. Iranian Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami said on Sunday that Tehran would respond to future Israeli offensive measures. ‘From now on, if the Zionist regime anywhere attacks our interests, assets, figures, and citizens, we will reciprocally attack it from the origin of Iran,’ he said on state-run television.
Israeli parliamentarians remain split on how to respond to the crisis. Where more moderate lawmakers, including Gantz, have urged restraint, some far-right leaders have called for a more drastic approach. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has long touted far-right policies, demanded a ‘crushing counterattack, urging Israel to ‘go crazy’ and ignore ‘restraint and proportionality.’
Attacks from Iranian soil add a fifth theater to Israel’s ongoing war. Already, Israel is battling Hamas militants in Gaza, Hezbollah assaults on its northern border, Houthi rebel-led shipping attacks in the Red Sea, and worsening violence in the West Bank. Meanwhile, Hamas rejected Israel’s latest cease-fire proposal on Saturday, instead calling for a permanent truce, the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza, more aid deliveries, the return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza, and the start of reconstruction efforts. Israel said it won’t stop fighting until all hostages in Gaza are returned and Hamas is completely destroyed.” [Foreign Policy]
The World This Week
“Tuesday, April 16: Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva begins a two-day trip to Colombia.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing.
Wednesday, April 17: Italy hosts a three-day G-7 foreign ministers’ summit.
Croatia holds parliamentary elections.
The Solomon Islands holds a general election.
Friday, April 19: The first phase of voting in India’s general election begins.
Saturday, April 20: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield concludes her multiday trip to South Korea and Japan.
Sunday, April 21: Maldives holds parliamentary elections.
Ecuador holds a referendum on security measures.
Spain’s Basque Country holds regional elections.
Monday, April 22: The Colombian government and National Liberation Army rebels conclude talks in Venezuela.” [Foreign Policy]
“New leadership. Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced his impending resignation on Monday—ending a nearly 20-year reign. He will step down on May 15, and Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who is also the country’s finance minister, will take his place. Lee had initially planned to step down in 2022 but stayed in power to shape the country’s COVID-19 response. The ruling People’s Action Party said Wong has its unanimous support; the nation’s next general election must occur no later than November 2025.
Wong is known for helping to navigate Singapore through the pandemic and chairing the nation’s central bank. Politicians hope this expertise will help Singapore rally from massive political and financial scandals as well as guide regional policy as the United States and China vie for influence in the Indo-Pacific. Wong said in a speech last year that Singapore has ‘to be prepared for unpredictable or even dangerous outcomes emerging’ from U.S.-China competition.” [Foreign Policy]
“Mass stabbings in Australia. Six people were fatally stabbed and 12 others injured at a shopping center in Sydney on Saturday. The perpetrator, 40-year-old Joel Cauchi, was killed at the scene. New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb said on Monday that the attacker’s motivation was unclear, but police are investigating whether he specifically targeted women. Five of the six victims killed and most of the 12 wounded individuals were women.
And on Monday, at least four people, including a bishop, were stabbed during a livestreamed church sermon in Sydney. Police arrested the 15-year-old suspect at the scene, but hundreds of people gathered outside the Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd Church to demand that the attacker be brought outside, clashing with police. The two stabbing attacks do not appear to be linked.” [Foreign Policy]
“Chip manufacturing efforts. The U.S. Commerce Department said on Monday that it will give up to $6.4 billion in grants to South Korea’s Samsung Electronics to expand its chipmaking facilities in Texas. The agreement is part of a wider investment plan that, with private funding, is expected to exceed $40 billion. This proposal puts Washington ‘on track to hit our goal of producing 20 percent of the world’s leading-edge chips in the United States by the end of the decade,’ Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.” [Foreign Policy]
Justice Department to File Antitrust Suit Against Live Nation
“The DOJ is preparing to sue Live Nation in the coming weeks, alleging the concert promoter undermines competition for ticketing live events.”
READ MORE at Wall Street Journal
America needs more sleep
Chart: Gallup
“Just 26% of Americans get at least eight hours of sleep per night, according to a new Gallup survey — down from 34% in 2013.
About 20% say they sleep less than five hours per night.
Women are significantly less likely than men to say they get enough sleep, and people between the ages of 30 and 49 are more sleep-deprived than any other age group.
Why it matters: Research has linked insufficient sleep to increased risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, obesity, depression, anxiety and dementia.” [Axios]
WNBA draft live updates: Caitlin Clark goes No. 1 to Indiana Fever
READ FULL STORY→ USA Today
Ethiopia’s Sisay Lemma wins Boston Marathon in runaway. Kenya’s Hellen Obiri repeats in women’s race
“After running alone for most of the morning, Sisay Lemma held on down Boylston Street to finish in 2 hours, 6 minutes, 17 seconds — the 10th fastest time in the race’s 128-year history.” Read More at AP News