Top eight today

Top eight stories for today including the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will ramp up to 24/7 operations ahead of the holiday season; The Supreme Court heard the Biden administration's appeal to reinstate the death penalty for the Boston Marathon bomber; The Justice Department announced a statewide investigation of Texas’ juvenile detention centers, and more.

National

Jurors introduced to Giuliani cronies accused of funneling ‘secret foreign money’ into US elections

Two Ukrainian former business associates of Rudy Giuliani insist they were just pursuing legal cannabis and natural gas enterprises, but federal prosecutors told jurors Wednesday that the men intentionally flouted campaign-finance laws.

This undated image released by the House Judiciary Committee from documents provided by Lev Parnas to the committee in the impeachment probe against President Donald Trump, shows a photo of Lev Parnas with Trump in Florida. Parnas, a close associate of Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani is claiming Trump was directly involved in the effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden. Trump on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020, repeated denials that he is acquainted with Parnas, despite numerous photos that have emerged of the two men together. (House Judiciary Committee via AP)

Cousins who stormed US Capitol given nearly 2 months in prison

Reaching a heftier sentence than one sought by prosecutors for the third time for Jan. 6 defendants, a federal judge ordered two cousins on Wednesday to 45 days behind bars.

Insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump breach the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Retired Defense Department analyst who joined Capitol riot dodges prison

A retired Department of Defense employee who said that participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was the “worst lapse of judgment in his life” was sentenced Wednesday to 24 months of probation plus community service.

The government's case against Thomas Gallagher includes this photo of the former Defense Department employee in the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center during the Jan. 6 riot. (Image via Courthouse News)

Feds said mention of unsolved murders would confuse marathon bomber’s jury. Could it also save his life?

Several Supreme Court justices sparred with the government’s lawyer — and sometimes each other — on Wednesday as they considered whether to reinstate the death penalty on Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

A courtroom sketch shows Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, center, standing with his defense attorneys at the Moakley federal courthouse in the penalty phase of his trial in Boston on May 15, 2015. (Jane Flavell Collins via AP)

Regional

LA, Long Beach ports to go 24/7 to relieve shipping bottleneck

In a plan developed by the White House's supply chain disruptions task force, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will ramp up to 24/7 operations ahead of the holiday season.

The Port of Los Angeles. (By John Murphy - https://www.flickr.com/photos/kingair42/3901392426, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47277865)

Justice Department launches probe of Texas juvenile lockups

The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday announced a statewide investigation of Texas’ juvenile detention centers, citing numerous arrests of staff for sexually abusing incarcerated children.

Teenagers head toward the gym at Caddo Juvenile Detention Center in Shreveport in April 2020. (AP Photo/Val Horvath, The Times)

Science

A third of flowering plants would produce no seeds without pollinators

If pollinators were to disappear, half of all flowering plants around the world would suffer a drastic reduction in fertility, according to a new study — the first to provide global estimates for the importance of pollinators in ecosystems.

Most flowering species rely on pollinators to reproduce, such as this daisy from South Africa is dependent on bee-flies. (Allan Ellis/Stellenbosch University)

Prehistoric poop shows ancient humans too enjoyed beer, blue cheese

New biological information gathered from prehistoric human poop shows even humans from nearly 3,000 years ago shared a love for blue cheese and pale ales.

This image shows paleofeces samples from Hallstatt salt mines analyzed in the study. (Frank Maixner/Eurac Resaearch)