(Bloomberg) -- Less than two months ago, shares of Tesla Inc. were on their way to just the third losing year in the electric-vehicle maker’s decade-and-a-half as a public company. But after a furious rally in the last seven weeks, the stock is suddenly among the S&P 500 Index’s best performers for 2024. What happened to trigger the turnaround? Nothing at the company, where demand for its cars is still wobbly and the future looks increasingly uncertain. Rather it was what investors regard as a political masterstroke by Tesla’s leader Elon Musk, aggressively supporting President-elect Donald Trump on the campaign trail and taking an unofficial role in his administration. “How do you put a value on the fact that Musk has deep access with the incoming administration?” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. “You can assign almost any number to it.” Investors seem to be doing just that. Prior to the US presidential election Tesla shares were down 2.3% for the year. Since Election Day, they’ve soared 73%, putting them up 69% for 2024. Meaning, in less than two months, the EV maker has added a staggering $572 billion to its market capitalization, bringing it to around $1.4 trillion, although nothing about the company fundamentally changed. Tesla shares slowed their roll this week, losing 3.5% after leaping more than 12% in each of the two prior weeks, as the Federal Reserve’s hawkish pivot sparked a wider selloff in equities. Saturday marks the four-year anniversary of the stock joining the S&P 500. The company did not respond to a request for comment. Despite Trump’s well known aversion to EVs, investors appear to be betting that Musk’s continued closeness to the administration will ease the way for Tesla’s ambition of building a fully self-driving car. Several Wall Street analysts have dramatically raised their price targets on the stock. They see the Trump White House as a game changer for self-driving technology and Tesla’s alignment with the new administration benefiting the company by easing regulations. Wobbly Platform But at the same time, the EV maker’s earnings and revenue expectations for 2024, 2025 and 2026 have plunged this year. And it remains unclear when its robotaxi initiative will start making money. That uncertainty about the next few years has some investors concerned that Tesla’s whopping market value is built on a wobbly platform. “There are massive hurdles for Tesla shares in 2025,” said Chris Gannatti, global head of research at Wisdomtree. “It is hard to imagine an upside scenario from here.” Between $500 billion and $600 billion of Tesla’s market cap is based on its EV and energy businesses, according to Evercore ISI analyst Chris McNally, with the rest ascribed to “things to come,” such as self-driving cars and humanoid robots. And calculations by Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research, show that over 90% of Tesla’s share price is tied to what the company might do in the future. You can see it in the company’s earnings valuations relative to another high-flyer: the artificial intelligence chip giant Nvidia Corp. Until recently, Nvidia was considered the hottest stock in the market. Now it’s Tesla’s turn. But based on their price-to-earnings ratios these are two very different businesses. Nvidia is currently trading at 32 times its projected earnings over the next 12 months, Tesla is at 129 times. That’s a substantial gap, particularly in light of the risks facing Tesla’s near-term performance. The Trump administration wants to cut federal subsidies for EVs, which will make the already expensive vehicles even pricier than gas-powered cars. About two-third of Tesla’s US sales, or about 20% of its global sales, benefit from the tax credit, Barclays analyst Dan Levy wrote in a note to clients this week. However, the move is likely to hurt the company’s smaller domestic competitors more, which could benefit Tesla by further consolidating its market position. Betting on easing regulations is dicey, however, because it can take a while to get done. And even if it happens, there’s little indication that Tesla’s Cybercab is ready to hit the road. If anything, loosening the rules before Tesla’s technology gets where it needs to be risks benefiting Tesla’s chief robotaxi competitor, Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo. “It is not regulation that is holding Tesla back when it comes to self-driving,” said Thomas Thornton, founder of Hedge Fund Telemetry. Betting on Power Theories about the parabolic rise of Tesla’s stock price abound on Wall Street. Investors want to bet on Musk’s growing power in Washington; the company’s massive following among retail traders is boosting the move. And Trump’s election win can transform the EV maker and offer massive future benefits. “People who bet against Musk and Tesla have consistently been proven wrong,” said Cole Wilcox, portfolio manager at Longboard Asset Management. “There is nothing in his way that can prevent him from executing his visions now.” In many ways, Tesla and Bitcoin have become the face of the post-election rally sparked by the return of animal spirits in markets. Read more: Tesla Technicals in Focus as Momentum Takes Over: Taking Stock “This rally is reminiscent of the moves we saw in 2020 and 2021, only this time the Tesla story has many more intangibles,” Interactive Brokers’ Sosnick said. The stock gained more than 740% in 2020, and then rose another 74% through Nov. 4, 2021 to set a new all-time high. The difference is those gains came as Tesla’s sales and profits were soaring, and the outlook for EV demand was bright. But as the tech-mania of 2021 snapped amid fears about rising inflation and steep interest rates, Tesla shares retreated sharply. Then came the warnings of an unexpected slowdown in EV sales, and thinning profit margins, and the stock struggled to climb back to those prior highs. It set its first new record since 2021 after Trump was elected. The options market tells a similar story. Tesla is such a favorite among derivatives traders that over the past month it has been the fifth largest equity options position in the US by notional volume, according to Rocky Fishman, founder of Asym 500. The top four are the S&P 500, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, the Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 and the Nasdaq 100 Index. “There is a dramatic reach for upside,” said Tom Keen, options trader at Piper Sandler. “And since owning call options on the stock has been working, people just keep doing that.” As long as this kind of pattern holds, Tesla shares can keep rising. After all, its investors are no strangers to such rapid rallies. And with Musk having a role in the Trump administration, there’s no telling where the company ultimately ends up. “The problem is that there’s only one public market play on Musk, and its symbol is TSLA,” DataTrek’s Colas said. “That makes it the focus of global investors, and valuation simply is not a consideration for many of them.”
PSX announces changes to KMI-30 index’ compositionSupreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is checking off another item on her bucket list: Broadway. Jackson will appear in a one-night performance of the musical comedy “& Juliet” on Saturday, according to an Instagram post from the Broadway show. The role is a walk-on, which does not typically include any lines of dialogue. Jackson will also participate in a special “talkback” after the performance, according to the social media post. RELATED STORY | Could Democrats pressure Justice Sotomayor to step down for replacement? In her recently published memoir, "Lovely One," Jackson wrote about her dreams of becoming the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court and appear on a Broadway stage. Now, it seems that her once-teenage dreams will come true. The show begins at 8 p.m. ET on Dec. 14 at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre in New York City.
ESD Packaging Market Outlook: Competitor Insights and Market Forecast Through 2024-2031 | Nefab, Desco Industries, Inc., Protektive Pak, Conductive Containers, IncThe AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll is back every week throughout the season! Get the poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here . LAS VEGAS (AP) — Dedan Thomas Jr. scored 15 points as UNLV beat UC Riverside 66-53 on Saturday. Thomas had five rebounds and five assists for the Rebels (6-5). Jeremiah Cherry scored 12 points and added three blocks. Jailen Bedford and Jaden Henley both added nine points. The Highlanders (8-5) were led by Barrington Hargress, who posted 17 points and two steals. Nate Pickens added 10 points and six rebounds for UC Riverside. Parker Strauss finished with six points. ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .DENVER (AP) — Amid renewed interest in the killing of JonBenet Ramsey triggered in part by a new Netflix documentary, police in Boulder, Colorado, refuted assertions this week that there is viable evidence and leads about the 1996 killing of the 6-year-old girl that they are not pursuing. JonBenet Ramsey, who competed in beauty pageants, was found dead in the basement of her family’s home in the college town of Boulder the day after Christmas in 1996. Her body was found several hours after her mother called 911 to say her daughter was missing and a ransom note had been left behind. The details of the crime and video footage of JonBenet competing in pageants propelled the case into one of the highest-profile mysteries in the United States. The police comments came as part of their annual update on the investigation, a month before the 28th anniversary of JonBenet’s killing. Police said they released it a little earlier due to the increased attention on the case, apparently referring to the three-part Netflix series “Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey.” In a video statement, Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn said the department welcomes news coverage and documentaries about the killing of JonBenet, who would have been 34 this year, as a way to generate possible new leads. He said the department is committed to solving the case but needs to be careful about what it shares about the investigation to protect a possible future prosecution. “What I can tell you though, is we have thoroughly investigated multiple people as suspects throughout the years and we continue to be open-minded about what occurred as we investigate the tips that come into detectives," he said. The Netflix documentary focuses on the mistakes made by police and the “media circus” surrounding the case. JonBenet was bludgeoned and strangled. Her death was ruled a homicide, but nobody was ever prosecuted. Police were widely criticized for mishandling the early investigation into her death amid speculation that her family was responsible. However, a prosecutor cleared her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, and brother Burke in 2008 based on new DNA evidence from JonBenet's clothing that pointed to the involvement of an “unexplained third party” in her slaying. The announcement by former district attorney Mary Lacy came two years after Patsy Ramsey died of cancer. Lacy called the Ramseys “victims of this crime.” John Ramsey has continued to speak out for the case to be solved. In 2022, he supported an online petition asking Colorado’s governor to intervene in the investigation by putting an outside agency in charge of DNA testing in the case. In the Netflix documentary, he said he has been advocating for several items that have not been prepared for DNA testing to be tested and for other items to be retested. He said the results should be put through a genealogy database. In recent years, investigators have identified suspects in unsolved cases by comparing DNA profiles from crime scenes and to DNA testing results shared online by people researching their family trees. In 2021, police said in their annual update that DNA hadn’t been ruled out to help solve the case, and in 2022 noted that some evidence could be “consumed” if DNA testing is done on it. Last year, police said they convened a panel of outside experts to review the investigation to give recommendations and determine if updated technologies or forensic testing might produce new leads. In the latest update, Redfearn said that review had ended but that police continue to work through and evaluate a “lengthy list of recommendations” from the panel. Amy Beth Hanson contributed to this report from Helena, Montana.
NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s recent dinner with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his visit to Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral were not just exercises in policy and diplomacy. They were also prime trolling opportunities for Trump. Throughout his first term in the White House and during his campaign to return, Trump has spun out countless provocative, antagonizing and mocking statements. There were his belittling nicknames for political opponents, his impressions of other political figures and the plentiful memes he shared on social media. Now that's he's preparing to return to the Oval Office, Trump is back at it, and his trolling is attracting more attention — and eyerolls. On Sunday, Trump turned a photo of himself seated near a smiling first lady Jill Biden at the Notre Dame ceremony into a social media promo for his new perfume and cologne line, with the tag line, “A fragrance your enemies can’t resist!” The first lady’s office declined to comment. When Trudeau hastily flew to Florida to meet with Trump last month over the president-elect's threat to impose a 25% tax on all Canadian products entering the U.S., the Republican tossed out the idea that Canada become the 51st U.S. state. The Canadians passed off the comment as a joke, but Trump has continued to play up the dig, including in a post Tuesday morning on his social media network referring to the prime minister as “Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada.” After decades as an entertainer and tabloid fixture, Trump has a flair for the provocative that is aimed at attracting attention and, in his most recent incarnation as a politician, mobilizing fans. He has long relished poking at his opponents, both to demean and minimize them and to delight supporters who share his irreverent comments and posts widely online and cheer for them in person. Trump, to the joy of his fans, first publicly needled Canada on his social media network a week ago when he posted an AI-generated image that showed him standing on a mountain with a Canadian flag next to him and the caption “Oh Canada!” After his latest post, Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Tuesday: “It sounds like we’re living in a episode of South Park." Trudeau said earlier this week that when it comes to Trump, “his approach will often be to challenge people, to destabilize a negotiating partner, to offer uncertainty and even sometimes a bit of chaos into the well established hallways of democracies and institutions and one of the most important things for us to do is not to freak out, not to panic.” Even Thanksgiving dinner isn't a trolling-free zone for Trump's adversaries. On Thanksgiving Day, Trump posted a movie clip from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” with President Joe Biden and other Democrats’ faces superimposed on the characters in a spoof of the turkey-carving scene. The video shows Trump appearing to explode out of the turkey in a swirl of purple sparks, with the former president stiffly dancing to one of his favorite songs, Village People’s “Y.M.C.A." In his most recent presidential campaign, Trump mocked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, refusing to call his GOP primary opponent by his real name and instead dubbing him “Ron DeSanctimonious.” He added, for good measure, in a post on his Truth Social network: “I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious ‘Meatball’ Ron, as the Fake News is insisting I will.” As he campaigned against Biden, Trump taunted him in online posts and with comments and impressions at his rallies, deriding the president over his intellect, his walk, his golf game and even his beach body. After Vice President Kamala Harris took over Biden's spot as the Democratic nominee, Trump repeatedly suggested she never worked at McDonalds while in college. Trump, true to form, turned his mocking into a spectacle by appearing at a Pennsylvania McDonalds in October, when he manned the fries station and held an impromptu news conference from the restaurant drive-thru. Trump’s team thinks people should get a sense of humor. “President Trump is a master at messaging and he’s always relatable to the average person, whereas many media members take themselves too seriously and have no concept of anything else other than suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome,” said Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director. “President Trump will Make America Great Again and we are getting back to a sense of optimism after a tumultuous four years.” Though both the Biden and Harris campaigns created and shared memes and launched other stunts to respond to Trump's taunts, so far America’s neighbors to the north are not taking the bait. “I don’t think we should necessarily look on Truth Social for public policy,” Miller said. Gerald Butts, a former top adviser to Trudeau and a close friend, said Trump brought up the 51st state line to Trudeau repeatedly during Trump’s first term in office. “Oh God,” Butts said Tuesday, “At least a half dozen times.” “This is who he is and what he does. He’s trying to destabilize everybody and make people anxious,” Butts said. “He’s trying to get people on the defensive and anxious and therefore willing to do things they wouldn’t otherwise entertain if they had their wits about them. I don’t know why anybody is surprised by it.” Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.Kane hat trick against Augsburg hides Bayern's concerning lack of goals
Johnson's 22 help Winthrop take down Mercer 102-97Kishtwar/Jammu, Dec 21 (PTI) Union minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday called for accelerating ongoing hydropower projects in Kishtwar and said that these projects are expected to generate 8,000 MW of electricity, positioning Jammu and Kashmir as a leading power hub in north India. The minister of state for Science and Technology, who also holds the portfolio of Earth Sciences, PMO, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, announced plans to establish a saffron park in Kishtwar. Also Read | Kolkata Fatafat Result Today: Kolkata FF Result for December 21, 2024 Declared, Check Winning Numbers and Result Chart of Satta Matka-Type Lottery Game. He urged further exploration of the world-class sapphire mines in Paddar, which could generate revenue and create employment opportunities for local youth. Singh chaired a meeting of the district development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DISHA) which included Deputy Commissioner Rajesh Kumar Shavan, local MLAs, Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) representatives, and district officers. Also Read | Shillong Teer Results Today, December 21, 2024: Winning Numbers, Result Chart for Shillong Morning Teer, Shillong Night Teer, Khanapara Teer, Juwai Teer and Jowai Ladrymbai. During the meeting, Singh urged NHPCL to train local unskilled labourers, enhancing their employability through specialised skill development. "The NHPCL should undertake capacity building of local unskilled labour to increase their employability for projects requiring specific skills and specialised training", Singh said. The minister reviewed key connectivity projects and called for the expedited construction of an airstrip under the UDAN scheme to improve accessibility in the challenging terrain. While addressing a meeting of BJP workers here, the Union minister accused the earlier governments of neglecting Kishtwar to the extent of even stopping the ongoing projects like the 850 MW Ratle hydroelectric power project. Instructions have been issued for expediting the speed of ongoing hydel power projects, the minister said, adding that once completed, the electricity produced by these plants will touch around 8,000 MW. He said with this mammoth power generation capacity, Kishtwar will catapult into becoming a major power hub of India and possibly the biggest in north India. He hailed the BJP's leadership and its cadre and said that the workers have done their relentless hard work with enthusiasm, and made efforts in connecting with the people of Kishtwar, especially in challenging circumstances. Singh praised the Kishtwar unit of BJP for delivering a stupendous showing during both Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. He said, the party's current generation is tasting the fruits of its success due to the sacrifices and hard work of its previous three generations of leaders and workers. The minister stressed the importance of collaboration between public representatives and departments like R&B to ensure timely execution of projects under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and Jal Jeevan Mission. To enhance transparency, Singh directed the district administration to establish a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for sharing information with PRIs during field visits and incorporating their inputs for effective project implementation. Highlighting environmental concerns, Singh instructed officials to ensure dynamic monitoring of environmental clearances for infrastructure projects and adopt best practices to protect public health and the environment. Addressing staff shortages in government departments, the minister proposed a uniform policy requiring civil servants, such as teachers and doctors, to provide compensation if they leave their jobs without following proper procedures. Singh also called for mass awareness campaigns to promote schemes and emphasised the need to encourage sports through Sansad Khelkud Spardha and to market local products, including cumin seeds and saffron. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)DENVER (AP) — Amid renewed interest in the killing of JonBenet Ramsey triggered in part by a new Netflix documentary, police in Boulder, Colorado, refuted assertions this week that there is viable evidence and leads about the 1996 killing of the 6-year-old girl that they are not pursuing. JonBenet Ramsey, who competed in beauty pageants, was found dead in the basement of her family’s home in the college town of Boulder the day after Christmas in 1996. Her body was found several hours after her mother called 911 to say her daughter was missing and a ransom note had been left behind. The details of the crime and video footage of JonBenet competing in pageants propelled the case into one of the highest-profile mysteries in the United States. The police comments came as part of their annual update on the investigation, a month before the 28th anniversary of JonBenet’s killing. Police said they released it a little earlier due to the increased attention on the case, apparently referring to the three-part Netflix series “Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey.” In a video statement, Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn said the department welcomes news coverage and documentaries about the killing of JonBenet, who would have been 34 this year, as a way to generate possible new leads. He said the department is committed to solving the case but needs to be careful about what it shares about the investigation to protect a possible future prosecution. “What I can tell you though, is we have thoroughly investigated multiple people as suspects throughout the years and we continue to be open-minded about what occurred as we investigate the tips that come into detectives," he said. The Netflix documentary focuses on the mistakes made by police and the “media circus” surrounding the case. JonBenet was bludgeoned and strangled. Her death was ruled a homicide, but nobody was ever prosecuted. Police were widely criticized for mishandling the early investigation into her death amid speculation that her family was responsible. However, a prosecutor cleared her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, and brother Burke in 2008 based on new DNA evidence from JonBenet's clothing that pointed to the involvement of an “unexplained third party” in her slaying. The announcement by former district attorney Mary Lacy came two years after Patsy Ramsey died of cancer. Lacy called the Ramseys “victims of this crime.” John Ramsey has continued to speak out for the case to be solved. In 2022, he supported an online petition asking Colorado’s governor to intervene in the investigation by putting an outside agency in charge of DNA testing in the case. In the Netflix documentary, he said he has been advocating for several items that have not been prepared for DNA testing to be tested and for other items to be retested. He said the results should be put through a genealogy database. In recent years, investigators have identified suspects in unsolved cases by comparing DNA profiles from crime scenes and to DNA testing results shared online by people researching their family trees. In 2021, police said in their annual update that DNA hadn’t been ruled out to help solve the case, and in 2022 noted that some evidence could be “consumed” if DNA testing is done on it. Last year, police said they convened a panel of outside experts to review the investigation to give recommendations and determine if updated technologies or forensic testing might produce new leads. In the latest update, Redfearn said that review had ended but that police continue to work through and evaluate a “lengthy list of recommendations” from the panel. Amy Beth Hanson contributed to this report from Helena, Montana.
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Brian Bohannon, Geoff Collins, and More Possible Head Coach Candidates for TempleNEW YORK (AP) — Bob Menendez asked a judge Wednesday to set aside guilty verdicts that forced his resignation from the U.S. Senate and grant a new bribery trial. Lawyers for the New Jersey Democrat said in papers filed in Manhattan federal court that a recent revelation by prosecutors that improper evidence was put on a computer used by jurors during deliberations means that a new trial is “unavoidable.” The 70-year-old Menendez was convicted in July of 16 charges , including bribery, in part based on an allegation that he accepted bribes in exchange for approving military aid to Egypt. He awaits a Jan. 29 sentencing. Menendez resigned from the Senate in August. At trial, prosecutors said Menendez accepted gold and cash from three New Jersey businessmen in return for favors. Earlier this month, prosecutors revealed in a letter to Judge Sidney H. Stein that they had discovered that some factual information that the judge had ruled should be excluded from several trial exhibits was instead inadvertently loaded onto a computer used by jurors to reach their verdict. In their letter, prosecutors said incorrect versions of nine government exhibits were missing some redactions ordered by Stein to ensure that the exhibits did not violate the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause, which protects speech relating to information shared by legislators. Prosecutors argued in their letter that no action was necessary in light of the error for several reasons, including that defense lawyers did not object after they inspected documents on that laptop before it was given to jurors. They also said there was a “reasonable likelihood” that no jurors saw the erroneously redacted versions of the exhibits and that the documents could not have prejudiced the defendants anyway because they were of “secondary relevance and cumulative with abundant properly admitted evidence.” Lawyers for Menendez, though, said in their submission Wednesday that the exhibits contained the “only evidence in the record” tying Menendez to military aid to Egypt, “an otherwise-missing fact at the very center of the central charge against him.” “In light of this serious breach, a new trial is unavoidable, despite all the hard work and resources that went into the first one,” they wrote. The lawyers criticized the government's attempt to shift blame for the error onto them by saying they viewed the laptop's contents and approved it. “That is both factually and legally outrageous,” they wrote. “The defense had only a few hours to review a laptop that contained nearly 3,000 exhibits; it had the right to expect that the government had not mislabeled non-introduced and constitutionally barred exhibits as admitted ones. If this were treated as a waiver, that would give parties the incentive to intentionally try to pull a fast one.” Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press
November 22 - Iowa cornerback Jermari Harris has opted out of the remainder of the 2024 season in order to prepare for the NFL draft, according to a report by 247Sports.com. The 6-foot-1 sixth-year senior from Chicago has recorded 27 tackles, three interceptions and a team-high seven pass breakups in 10 games for the Hawkeyes this season. That includes a pick-6 in a 38-21 win over Troy earlier this season. Iowa (6-4, 4-3 Big Ten) plays at Maryland on Saturday before closing out its regular season at home against Nebraska on Nov. 29. The Hawkeyes are already bowl eligible, so Harris is likely opting out of three games in total. After missing the entire 2022 season due to an ankle injury, Harris was suspended for two games of the following season for his involvement in the gambling investigation into Iowa athletics. He later emerged as the Hawkeyes' top cornerback, earning the team's comeback player of the year award after compiling 42 tackles, one interception and eight pass breakups. Harris will finish his college career with 105 tackles and eight interceptions. --Field Level Media Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. , opens new tabJonBenet Ramsey, who competed in beauty pageants, was found dead in the basement of her family’s home in the college town of Boulder the day after Christmas in 1996. Her body was found several hours after her mother called 911 to say her daughter was missing and a ransom note had been left behind. The details of the crime and video footage of JonBenet competing in pageants propelled the case into one of the highest-profile mysteries in the United States. The police comments came as part of their annual update on the investigation, a month before the 28th anniversary of JonBenet’s killing. Police said they released it a little earlier due to the increased attention on the case, apparently referring to the three-part Netflix series “Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey.” In a video statement, Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn said the department welcomes news coverage and documentaries about the killing of JonBenet, who would have been 34 this year, as a way to generate possible new leads. He said the department is committed to solving the case but needs to be careful about what it shares about the investigation to protect a possible future prosecution. “What I can tell you though, is we have thoroughly investigated multiple people as suspects throughout the years and we continue to be open-minded about what occurred as we investigate the tips that come into detectives," he said. The Netflix documentary focuses on the mistakes made by police and the “media circus” surrounding the case. JonBenet was bludgeoned and strangled. Her death was ruled a homicide, but nobody was ever prosecuted. Police were widely criticized for mishandling the early investigation into her death amid speculation that her family was responsible. However, a prosecutor cleared her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, and brother Burke in 2008 based on new DNA evidence from JonBenet's clothing that pointed to the involvement of an “unexplained third party” in her slaying. The announcement by former district attorney Mary Lacy came two years after Patsy Ramsey died of cancer. Lacy called the Ramseys “victims of this crime.” John Ramsey has continued to speak out for the case to be solved. In 2022, he supported an online petition asking Colorado’s governor to intervene in the investigation by putting an outside agency in charge of DNA testing in the case. In the Netflix documentary, he said he has been advocating for several items that have not been prepared for DNA testing to be tested and for other items to be retested. He said the results should be put through a genealogy database. In recent years, investigators have identified suspects in unsolved cases by comparing DNA profiles from crime scenes and to DNA testing results shared online by people researching their family trees. In 2021, police said in their annual update that DNA hadn’t been ruled out to help solve the case, and in 2022 noted that some evidence could be “consumed” if DNA testing is done on it. Last year, police said they convened a panel of outside experts to review the investigation to give recommendations and determine if updated technologies or forensic testing might produce new leads. In the latest update, Redfearn said that review had ended but that police continue to work through and evaluate a “lengthy list of recommendations” from the panel. Amy Beth Hanson contributed to this report from Helena, Montana.
DENVER (AP) — Amid renewed interest in the killing of JonBenet Ramsey triggered in part by a new Netflix documentary, police in Boulder, Colorado, refuted assertions this week that there is viable evidence and leads about the 1996 killing of the 6-year-old girl that they are not pursuing. JonBenet Ramsey, who competed in beauty pageants, was found dead in the basement of her family’s home in the college town of Boulder the day after Christmas in 1996. Her body was found several hours after her mother called 911 to say her daughter was missing and a ransom note had been left behind. The details of the crime and video footage of JonBenet competing in pageants propelled the case into one of the highest-profile mysteries in the United States. The police comments came as part of their annual update on the investigation, a month before the 28th anniversary of JonBenet’s killing. Police said they released it a little earlier due to the increased attention on the case, apparently referring to the three-part Netflix series “Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey.” In a video statement, Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn said the department welcomes news coverage and documentaries about the killing of JonBenet, who would have been 34 this year, as a way to generate possible new leads. He said the department is committed to solving the case but needs to be careful about what it shares about the investigation to protect a possible future prosecution. “What I can tell you though, is we have thoroughly investigated multiple people as suspects throughout the years and we continue to be open-minded about what occurred as we investigate the tips that come into detectives," he said. The Netflix documentary focuses on the mistakes made by police and the “media circus” surrounding the case. JonBenet was bludgeoned and strangled. Her death was ruled a homicide, but nobody was ever prosecuted. Police were widely criticized for mishandling the early investigation into her death amid speculation that her family was responsible. However, a prosecutor cleared her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, and brother Burke in 2008 based on new DNA evidence from JonBenet's clothing that pointed to the involvement of an “unexplained third party” in her slaying. The announcement by former district attorney Mary Lacy came two years after Patsy Ramsey died of cancer. Lacy called the Ramseys “victims of this crime.” John Ramsey has continued to speak out for the case to be solved. In 2022, he supported an online petition asking Colorado’s governor to intervene in the investigation by putting an outside agency in charge of DNA testing in the case. In the Netflix documentary, he said he has been advocating for several items that have not been prepared for DNA testing to be tested and for other items to be retested. He said the results should be put through a genealogy database. In recent years, investigators have identified suspects in unsolved cases by comparing DNA profiles from crime scenes and to DNA testing results shared online by people researching their family trees. In 2021, police said in their annual update that DNA hadn’t been ruled out to help solve the case, and in 2022 noted that some evidence could be “consumed” if DNA testing is done on it. Last year, police said they convened a panel of outside experts to review the investigation to give recommendations and determine if updated technologies or forensic testing might produce new leads. In the latest update, Redfearn said that review had ended but that police continue to work through and evaluate a “lengthy list of recommendations” from the panel. Amy Beth Hanson contributed to this report from Helena, Montana.
NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s recent dinner with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his visit to Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral were not just exercises in policy and diplomacy. They were also prime trolling opportunities for Trump. Throughout his first term in the White House and during his campaign to return, Trump has spun out countless provocative, antagonizing and mocking statements. There were his belittling nicknames for political opponents, his impressions of other political figures and the plentiful memes he shared on social media. Now that's he's preparing to return to the Oval Office, Trump is back at it, and his trolling is attracting more attention — and eyerolls. On Sunday, Trump turned a photo of himself seated near a smiling first lady Jill Biden at the Notre Dame ceremony into a social media promo for his new perfume and cologne line, with the tag line, “A fragrance your enemies can’t resist!” The first lady’s office declined to comment. When Trudeau hastily flew to Florida to meet with Trump last month over the president-elect's threat to impose a 25% tax on all Canadian products entering the U.S., the Republican tossed out the idea that Canada become the 51st U.S. state. The Canadians passed off the comment as a joke, but Trump has continued to play up the dig, including in a post Tuesday morning on his social media network referring to the prime minister as “Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada.” After decades as an entertainer and tabloid fixture, Trump has a flair for the provocative that is aimed at attracting attention and, in his most recent incarnation as a politician, mobilizing fans. He has long relished poking at his opponents, both to demean and minimize them and to delight supporters who share his irreverent comments and posts widely online and cheer for them in person. Trump, to the joy of his fans, first publicly needled Canada on his social media network a week ago when he posted an AI-generated image that showed him standing on a mountain with a Canadian flag next to him and the caption “Oh Canada!” After his latest post, Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Tuesday: “It sounds like we’re living in a episode of South Park." Trudeau said earlier this week that when it comes to Trump, “his approach will often be to challenge people, to destabilize a negotiating partner, to offer uncertainty and even sometimes a bit of chaos into the well established hallways of democracies and institutions and one of the most important things for us to do is not to freak out, not to panic.” Even Thanksgiving dinner isn't a trolling-free zone for Trump's adversaries. On Thanksgiving Day, Trump posted a movie clip from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” with President Joe Biden and other Democrats’ faces superimposed on the characters in a spoof of the turkey-carving scene. The video shows Trump appearing to explode out of the turkey in a swirl of purple sparks, with the former president stiffly dancing to one of his favorite songs, Village People’s “Y.M.C.A." In his most recent presidential campaign, Trump mocked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, refusing to call his GOP primary opponent by his real name and instead dubbing him “Ron DeSanctimonious.” He added, for good measure, in a post on his Truth Social network: “I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious ‘Meatball’ Ron, as the Fake News is insisting I will.” As he campaigned against Biden, Trump taunted him in online posts and with comments and impressions at his rallies, deriding the president over his intellect, his walk, his golf game and even his beach body. After Vice President Kamala Harris took over Biden's spot as the Democratic nominee, Trump repeatedly suggested she never worked at McDonalds while in college. Trump, true to form, turned his mocking into a spectacle by appearing at a Pennsylvania McDonalds in October, when he manned the fries station and held an impromptu news conference from the restaurant drive-thru. Trump’s team thinks people should get a sense of humor. “President Trump is a master at messaging and he’s always relatable to the average person, whereas many media members take themselves too seriously and have no concept of anything else other than suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome,” said Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director. “President Trump will Make America Great Again and we are getting back to a sense of optimism after a tumultuous four years.” Though both the Biden and Harris campaigns created and shared memes and launched other stunts to respond to Trump's taunts, so far America’s neighbors to the north are not taking the bait. “I don’t think we should necessarily look on Truth Social for public policy,” Miller said. Gerald Butts, a former top adviser to Trudeau and a close friend, said Trump brought up the 51st state line to Trudeau repeatedly during Trump’s first term in office. “Oh God,” Butts said Tuesday, “At least a half dozen times.” “This is who he is and what he does. He’s trying to destabilize everybody and make people anxious,” Butts said. “He’s trying to get people on the defensive and anxious and therefore willing to do things they wouldn’t otherwise entertain if they had their wits about them. I don’t know why anybody is surprised by it.” Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.Donald Trump is returning to the world stage. So is his trolling