Prosecutors allege Daniel Park, of the Seattle area, mailed some 180 pounds of ammonium nitrate to Guy Edward Bartkus that were used to bomb the clinic in what the FBI considers an act of terrorism. Bartkus died during the explosion.
Bill Essayli, who’s the U.S. attorney for California’s Central District, said investigators found lab equipment and bomb ingredients at Bartkus’ house in Twentynine Palms. “Park spent approximately two weeks visiting Bartkus’ residence in 29 Palms in late January and early February of this year, spending time together running experiments in Bartkus’ garage,” said Essayli.
The FBI declined to say how the two men knew each other. Park is charged with providing material support to a terrorist and could face up to 15 years in prison.
California’s high-speed rail project is a “story of broken promises,” a “waste of Federal taxpayer dollars” and a “Sisyphean endeavor.” Or so the Trump administration’s Transportation Department said, which on Wednesday announced it was pulling $4 billion in federal funding from the woefully protracted, over-budget project that the state first broke ground on more than a decade ago.
“What started as a proposed 800-mile system was first reduced to 500 miles, then became a 171-mile segment, and is now very likely ended as a 119-mile track to nowhere,” Drew Feeley, acting administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, wrote in his scathing report to the state’s high-speed rail authority. “In essence, [the project] has conned the taxpayer out of its $4 billion investment, with no viable plan to deliver even that partial segment on time.”
The clawback of high-speed rail funding, originally granted by the Biden administration, should come as little surprise to state officials. Republicans have excoriated the massive infrastructure project almost since its inception in 1996, casting it as the epitome of government waste and inefficiency. After unsuccessfully attempting to cut its funding during his first term, President Trump in February vowed to personally investigate the project, directing transportation officials to conduct a compliance review.
