Nation and World briefs for September 17

Can Purdue Pharma’s opioid settlement win judge’s approval?

BOSTON — OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma has embarked on a multibillion-dollar plan to settle thousands of lawsuits over the nation’s deadly opioid crisis by transforming itself in bankruptcy court into a sort of hybrid between a business and a charity.

Whether the company can pull it off remains to be seen, especially with about half the states opposed to the deal.

The pharmaceutical giant filed for bankruptcy late Sunday, step one in a plan it says would provide $10 billion to $12 billion to help reimburse state and local governments and clean up the damage done by powerful prescription painkillers and illegal opioids like heroin and fentanyl, which together have been blamed for more than 400,000 deaths in the U.S. in the past two decades.

The plan calls for turning Purdue into a “public benefit trust” that would continue selling opioids but hand its profits over to those who have sued the company. The Sackler family would give up ownership of Purdue and contribute at least $3 billion toward the settlement.

It will be up to a federal bankruptcy judge to decide whether to approve or reject the settlement or seek modifications.

On vote eve, Netanyahu vows total West Bank settlement annex

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday to annex “all the settlements” in the West Bank, including an enclave deep in the heart of the largest Palestinian city, in a last-ditch move that appeared aimed at shoring up nationalist support the day before a do-over election.

Locked in a razor tight race and with legal woes hanging over him, Netanyahu is fighting for his political survival. In the final weeks of his campaign he has been doling out hard-line promises meant to draw more voters to his Likud party and re-elect him in Tuesday’s unprecedented repeat vote.

“I intend to extend sovereignty on all the settlements and the (settlement) blocs,” including “sites that have security importance or are important to Israel’s heritage,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Israeli Army Radio, part of an eleventh-hour media blitz.

Asked if that included the hundreds of Jews who live under heavy military guard amid tens of thousands of Palestinians in the volatile city of Hebron, Netanyahu responded “of course.”

Israelis head to the polls Tuesday in the second election this year, after Netanyahu failed to cobble together a coalition following April’s vote, sparking the dissolution of parliament.

White House orders 2 former aides to defy House subpoenas

WASHINGTON — The White House has instructed two former aides to President Donald Trump not to appear at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, saying Rick Dearborn and Rob Porter are “absolutely immune” from testifying at what the panel is calling its first impeachment hearing.

In a letter sent to the panel and obtained by The Associated Press, White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote that the Justice Department has advised — and Trump has directed — Dearborn and Porter to defy subpoenas because of “constitutional immunity.” Lawyers for both men said they would follow Trump’s orders.

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who never worked for the White House, is expected to attend the hearing as its sole witness on Tuesday. In a separate letter, Cipollone said Lewandowski should not reveal private conversations with Trump beyond what is already public in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler invited the three men to testify at the hearing as part of the panel’s probe into Mueller’s report and what Nadler is calling an “aggressive series of hearings” this fall to determine whether Trump should be impeached. But the committee has so far been hobbled by the White House’s blockade of witness testimony and document requests, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she wants to wait to see what happens in court before making a decision on impeachment.

Cipollone wrote that Dearborn and Porter were advised not to attend “because of the constitutional immunity that protects senior advisers to the president from compelled congressional testimony, and in order to protect the prerogatives of the Office of President.”

Times faces questions all around for Kavanaugh story

NEW YORK — Between an offensive tweet and a significant revision, the New York Times’ handling of a new sexual misconduct allegation against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh attracted almost as much attention as the accusation itself.

The story also gave President Donald Trump and his allies fresh ammunition in his campaign against the media, where the Times was already a favorite target.

The revelation that led several Democratic presidential contenders to call for Kavanaugh’s impeachment came in the 11th paragraph of a story labeled “news analysis” that ran in the Sunday opinion section. The story is based on an upcoming book by Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation,” about the junior justice’s brutal confirmation battle last year.

Headlined “Brett Kavanaugh Fit In With the Privileged Kids. She Did Not,” the story was primarily about Deborah Ramirez, a Connecticut woman who alleged that Kavanaugh, as a freshman at Yale in 1983, had pulled down his pants and thrust his penis at her. Kavanaugh has denied those claims.

Yet the authors said they’d uncovered a similar story involving Kavanaugh at another freshman year party, where he allegedly exposed himself and friends pushed his penis into the hands of a female student. The story said former classmate Max Stier reported the incident to the FBI and senators as Kavanaugh’s nomination was being discussed, but said Stier would not discuss it with the authors. Kavanaugh would not comment on the story, a court spokeswoman said on Monday.

Trump rallies backers in New Mexico in bid to turn state red

RIO RANCHO, N.M. — President Donald Trump made a pocketbook appeal for reelection in the Democratic-leaning state of New Mexico on Monday, telling voters that his energy policies have made the state wealthier and warning that the gains could disappear if the proposal knows as the Green New Deal takes effect.

“The Democrats want to completely annihilate New Mexico’s economy,” claimed Trump, who boasted that an oil and gas boom during his administration has helped increase the state’s revenues. “The Democrats will never get the chance because New Mexico will never give them that chance.”

Trump went to New Mexico, which has not backed a Republican for president since 2004, to try to turn the state red and expand his grip on the Electoral College in next year’s presidential election.

“It’s been quite a while since a Republican won this state,” Trump told supporters, who greeted him with chants of “USA, USA.” ”I think we’re going to do great here. We’re here because we really think we’re going to turn this state and make it a Republican state.”

Trump’s rally in Rio Rancho, in suburban Albuquerque, is the first stop on a three-day swing that will also take him to California for fundraisers expected to raise more than $15 million.

Police: DNA links Florida man to ‘serial’ slayings of women

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Three women shot in the head, each dumped a month a part — the 2006 killings scared Daytona Beach’s street people so badly that they memorized suspicious men’s license plate numbers and gave them to police. And then suddenly the slayings stopped.

Ten years later, a prostitute’s body was dumped along a road, 180 miles (290 kilometers) south in West Palm Beach. DNA and ballistics showed that Rachel Bey’s strangulation and the gun deaths of Laquetta Gunther, Julie Green and Iwana Patton were done by one man, but detectives couldn’t identify the killer — until last week, they said Monday.

Palm Beach County sheriff’s investigators charged Robert Hayes, 37, with murder for Bey’s death and Daytona Beach detectives said he is the prime suspect in their investigation, though he has not been charged there. Detectives also want to know what Hayes was doing between 2006 and 2016 and whether the former college criminal justice major may be responsible for more slayings.

“We believe we took a serial killer off the streets. We’re going to be looking for additional victims,” Palm Beach sheriff’s Capt. Michael Wallace told a news conference Monday, shortly after a judge ordered Hayes held without bond.

“If we hadn’t put this individual in jail, he would’ve done this again and we would have had another victim,” Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said.