
Captain sentenced to 4 years in prison after scuba dive boat fire that killed 34 people in California
CNN
A former dive boat captain was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday on a negligence conviction known as “seaman’s manslaughter” after 34 people were killed in a fire that broke out on his boat in 2019.
A federal judge sentenced a former dive boat captain on Thursday to four years in prison on a negligence conviction known as “seaman’s manslaughter” after 34 people were killed in a fire that broke out on his boat in 2019. Jerry Nehl Boylan, who faced up to 10 years in prison, was found guilty in 2023 of one federal felony count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer. The fire erupted on the morning of Labor Day, when the boat was anchored near Santa Cruz Island, the largest of California’s Channel Islands, about 25 miles off the mainland. Boylan, 70, was one of five crew members to make it off the 75-foot vessel, The Conception, and the first to abandon ship, according to prosecutors. Thirty-three passengers and one crew member below deck died of smoke inhalation, police said. The victims were sleeping below deck when the fire broke out, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Robert Sumwalt, the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board at the time, said it was the deadliest maritime accident in nearly 70 years.

White House officials are heaping blame on DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro over her office’s criminal investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell, faulting her for blindsiding them with an inquiry that has forced the administration into a dayslong damage control campaign, four people familiar with the matter told CNN.

The aircraft used in the US military’s first strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a strike which has drawn intense scrutiny and resulted in numerous Congressional briefings, was painted as a civilian aircraft and was part of a closely guarded classified program, sources familiar with the program told CNN. Its use “immediately drew scrutiny and real concerns” from lawmakers, one of the sources familiar said, and legislators began asking questions about the aircraft during briefings in September.

DOJ pleads with lawyers to get through ‘grind’ of Epstein files as criticism of redactions continues
“It is a grind,” the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division said in an email. “While we certainly encourage aggressive overachievers, we need reviewers to hit the 1,000-page mark each day.”

A new classified legal opinion produced by the Justice Department argues that President Donald Trump was not limited by domestic law when approving the US operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro because of his constitutional authority as commander-in-chief and that he is not constrained by international law when it comes to carrying out law enforcement operations overseas, according to sources who have read the memo.









