NRA Trial, Alaskan Airlines, and Deep-Sea Discoveries

NRA Trial Begins

Opening arguments begin today in a long-anticipated civil trial against the National Rifle Association, the largest gun-rights lobby in the US. The trial opens after longtime NRA leader Wayne LaPierre, a subject of the lawsuit, resigned Friday citing health reasons. 

New York Attorney General Letitia James launched an investigation into the NRA's leadership in 2019 amid allegations of corruption and financial fraud. The lawsuit alleges LaPierre and others used millions of dollars to fund personal expenses and seeks to bar the defendants from leading New York nonprofits in addition to financial penalties. One defendant agreed to pay $100K and testify against his codefendants as part of a settlement announced Saturday.

The NRA, which was founded after the Civil War as a marksmanship club, was chartered in New York (its headquarters are in Virginia) and has seen its membership decline from 6 million to just over 4 million over five years. Current leaders have committed to reform.

Midair Blowout

Federal aviation officials ordered the grounding of a popular model of Boeing's 737 MAX jets over the weekend, following a harrowing incident on a Friday Alaska Airlines flight during which a chunk of the plane's fuselage blew off midascent. No one was injured during the incident, though depressurization reportedly ripped a child's shirt off. See video here.

The blowout occurred on a late afternoon flight out of Portland, Oregon, minutes after takeoff at about 16,000 feet in the air. The failed section was said to be a panel where MAX 9 models have the option for an emergency exit; Alaska Airlines' seat configuration does not require the exit, so the panel had been "plugged" after production. Officials are currently searching for the lost panel, believed to have landed along Route 217, west of the city. 

Boeing's MAX models were involved in a pair of deadly crashes in 2018-19, which were ultimately linked to an unrelated issue with new autopilot software.

Listen to the pilot's call with air traffic control here.

Spending Deal

Congressional leaders reached an agreement on spending levels for the 2024 fiscal year, striking a roughly $1.7T deal ahead of looming deadlines to fund separate parts of the federal government. Leaders from both parties in the House and Senate approved the compromise, with individual appropriations bills sticking to the topline levels by separate committees. 

The funding level is around $100B more than a deal made between then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R, CA-20) and President Joe Biden. Conservative lawmakers pushed for deeper spending cuts, a sticking point that left negotiations stalled and ultimately drove McCarthy's ouster. A deal would mark a key achievement for his successor, Speaker Mike Johnson (R, LA-4).

If passed, the deal would come roughly four months into the fiscal year; federal agencies have been operating on funds doled out in two previous short-term extensions. 

Two groups of federal agencies are set to run out of funding on separate dates: Jan. 19 and Feb. 2. 

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