Task force report: Donald Trump assassination attempt in Butler was 'preventable'

WASHINGTON — A failure to recognize a high-risk area including a rooftop within range of a presidential nominee's stage. Insufficient guidance on who was responsible for what at an immense, boisterous rally.

Heavy responsibility placed on Secret Service agents with little-to-no experience in advance planning. And a fragmented communication structure and technology breakdowns that let a gunman elude law enforcement and open fire — rocking an already heated election and taking a man's life.

The bipartisan House task force on the assassination attempt on President-elect Donald Trump on July 13 at the Butler Farm Show grounds cited these and other severe, systemic failures in its final report released Tuesday.

The 180-page report, which is redacted to exclude personnel and other security issues and covers a second thwarted attempt on Trump's life at a Florida golf course in September, paints a damning picture of Secret Service training, planning and operations after a nearly five-month investigation helmed by Reps. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, and Jason Crow, D-Colo.

—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

US life expectancy gap widens to 20 years among groups, Seattle researchers found

SEATTLE — If you live in the United States, your life span largely depends on your race and ethnicity, where you live and how much money you make, researchers have reported for years. But in the last two decades, the gap between those with longest and shortest lives has grown, according to a new report from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle.

As of 2021, life expectancy in the U.S. varied by more than 20 years based on race and ethnicity, among other factors. While Asian Americans generally lived the longest, to about 84 years old, the average life span for American Indian/Alaska Native populations was about 63.6 years, researchers found.

The new results, published in The Lancet in late November, are so stark they reinforce the notion that within the U.S., there are at least 10 different Americas, study authors wrote.

"We're going the wrong way, and these disparities are increasing," said Ali Mokdad, who worked on the report and who's the chief strategy officer for population health at the University of Washington. "Our health is not improving."

—The Seattle Times

Maryland is the lone state to ban flamethrowers, leading to charges against a man accused of writing Trump’s name in fire

BALTIMORE — Maryland may be the only state in the country to ban them, but it is in good company: An international treaty also bans flamethrowers, or at least their use against civilians in war.

Flamethrowers, more commonly associated with wars and movies depicting them, were in the news last week when a Glen Burnie man was charged with using one to burn the words “Trump” and “USA” onto the road outside his house.

After officials reviewed a TikTok video depicting the flaming graffiti, Craig Philip McQuin was charged with a felony for possession of a destructive device and two misdemeanors for second-degree malicious burning, and malicious destruction of property valued at $1,000 or higher, court records show.

Maryland is apparently the only state in the nation to outright ban flamethrowers, although California requires users to obtain a permit from the state’s fire marshal for devices that “emit or propel a burning stream of combustible or flammable liquid a distance of at least 10 feet.”

—The Baltimore Sun

Syrian rebels prepare transition government, vow to punish torturers

DAMASCUS, Syria — The new leadership in Syria started to take shape on Tuesday, as the Islamist rebels named a new prime minister for a transition period and vowed to go after those responsible for torture under the rule of ousted president Bashar Assad.

Mohammed al-Bashir, the former head of the government in the rebel stronghold of Idlib in north-west Syria, announced he would take over the leadership of the country's transitional government.

Al-Bashir said on Tuesday he had been "appointed to lead the transitional period until March 2025."

The 40-year-old holds a degree in electrical engineering from Aleppo University and later studied law in Idlib University.

—dpa