Chronicle briefs for Oct. 19

Biden open to new oil reserve sales

The Biden administration will release 15 million barrels from U.S. emergency reserves and may consider freeing up significantly larger additional supplies this winter as it tries to ease high gasoline prices that have become a liability for Democrats in next month’s midterm elections.

President Joe Biden announced the plan Wednesday. It’s the final tranche of oil from a program the White House began in the spring to release a total of 180 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to address high gas prices stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine among other factors.

The president is also prepared to conduct additional, significant SPR sales this winter if conditions require it, according to a senior administration official.

“We think that this will make some difference,” National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “We’re going to keep at it. Keep a close eye on these things with an understanding that we have these tools on the table, and we’ll deploy them when it’s in America’s interest.”

In addition, the White House announced new details on its plan to replenish the emergency stockpile, which has the capacity to hold about 714 million barrels and contained 405.1 million barrels as of Oct. 14. The administration plans to initiate purchases when West Texas Intermediate crude prices are at or below $67 to $72 per barrel, according to a senior administration official.

Trump prosecutors see evidence for obstruction charges

A group of Justice Department prosecutors believes there is sufficient evidence to charge Donald Trump with obstruction of justice, but the path to an actual indictment is far from clear.

The team that’s part of the classified records probe has not yet made a formal recommendation to Attorney General Merrick Garland, who would ultimately approve or reject such a move, according to people familiar with the matter. It’s also unlikely officials would bring only obstruction charges amid several other Trump investigations into potential crimes, the people said.

In addition, while some Federal Bureau of Investigation agents oppose bringing such a politically charged case as Trump considers a 2024 presidential bid, others support action, said the people, who asked for anonymity to discuss information not yet public. Agents, however, don’t make the final decisions.

The Justice Department has publicly indicated that obstruction is part of its probe into the mishandling of classified records, noting there was probable cause for the charge in the Aug. 5 FBI search warrant application for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. But no charges are likely to be filed – or publicly revealed – before the Nov. 8 midterm elections, and perhaps only after the Christmas holiday, the people said.

jury convicts Flores of 1996 murder of Smart

Kristin Smart, a 19-year-old student at California Polytechnic University, was last seen with fellow freshman Paul Flores in the early hours of a Saturday in May 1996, walking to her dorm after leaving an off-campus party.

On Tuesday, more than a quarter-century later, a California jury found Flores guilty in her murder.

Flores’ father, Ruben Flores, who had been accused of helping his son conceal Smart’s remains, was found not guilty of being an accessory to the murder. Smart’s body has not been found.

“Without Kristin, there’s no joy or happiness,” Stan Smart, her father, told reporters after the verdict. “This has been an agonizingly long journey, with more downs than ups,” he said, before thanking prosecutors for securing the guilty verdict for the younger Flores. But he said that with the senior Flores acquitted, the Smarts’ “quest for justice will continue.”

Paul Flores, 45, faces 25 years to life in prison, prosecutors said. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 9 at the Monterey County Superior Court in California.

Civilian relocations begin in Kherson

KYIV, Ukraine – Russian occupation officials were moving civilians out of Kherson on Wednesday, another sign that Moscow’s hold on the strategic southern Ukrainian city was slipping, as President Vladimir Putin of Russia sought to reassert control over that and other occupied regions by declaring martial law.

The move by Putin was an effort to tighten the Kremlin’s authority over Kherson and three other Ukrainian regions he recently claimed to annex, even as his army loses ground in those areas to Ukrainian forces and as Western allies dismiss the annexations as illegal.

As Russian proxy officials in Kherson said they would move as many as 60,000 civilians to the eastern side of the Dnieper River and shift its civilian administration there, they appeared to be girding for a battle for control of the region. Amid a weekslong Ukrainian counteroffensive, the pro-Kremlin leader in Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, said the relocations would protect civilians and help Russian forces fortify defenses to “repel any attack.”

Ukrainian officials dismissed the plans as “a propaganda show.” Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, accused the Russian proxies of scaring civilians with claims that Ukraine would shell the city. He called it “a rather primitive tactic, given that the armed forces do not fire at Ukrainian cities – this is done exclusively by Russian terrorists.”

Weed is coming to Circle K gas stations in U.S. next year

Weed is coming to U.S. gas stations.

Circle K, the global convenience-store chain, signed a deal with Green Thumb Industries Inc., one of the largest U.S. cannabis producers, to sell licensed marijuana at its Florida gasoline retailers. The partnership will begin next year with 10 of the company’s 600 locations in the state, Green Thumb said.

The deal is a global first, given that legal marijuana has been sold only in stand-alone dispensaries in the U.S. and within pharmacies in countries such as Uruguay and Germany. By selling marijuana, which is still illegal at the federal level, at gas stations where consumers buy staples like snacks and cigarettes, the partnership may help push the drug further into the mainstream.

The agreement will “continue to normalize” marijuana by integrating it with regular consumer products,” Green Thumb Chief Executive Officer Ben Kovler said in an interview. “This is a futuristic deal.”