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u.s. news DIAHUEBS 22 JULI 2021
Michael Avenatti faces embezzlement trial in California

Avenatti collected $4 million tors said they expect to take ended its league sponsorship.
from Los Angeles County for three weeks to make their
a man who suffered injuries case and to call about 30 wit- Avenatti faces another crimi-
in custody and was left para- nesses. The U.S. attorney’s nal case in New York in which
plegic after a suicide attempt. office in Los Angeles de- he is charged with cheating
Avenatti denied the settle- clined to comment ahead of Daniels out of hundreds of
ment was received and paid opening statements. thousands of dollars. Avenatti
much smaller amounts to the represented her in 2018 in
man ranging from $1,000 to In court filings, lawyer H. lawsuits against Trump, and
$1,900, which he said were Dean Steward — who pre- often appeared on cable news
advances on the broader set- viously represented Avenatti programs to disparage the
tlement, prosecutors said in and continues to assist in the Republican president.
court filings. case— raised concerns about
the jury selection process Daniels said a tryst with
In another instance, Avenat- and sought unsuccessfully to Trump a decade earlier result-
ti collected a $2.75 million delay the trial, arguing that ed in her being paid $130,000
(AP) — Michael Avenatti, sent himself in the case after settlement payment for a cli- widespread publicity follow- by Trump’s personal lawyer
the brash lawyer recently U.S. District Court Judge ent and used the bulk of the ing Avenatti’s New York sen- in 2016 to stay silent. Trump
sentenced to 2 1/2 years James V. Selna on Tuesday money to buy a private air- tencing could affect his rights denied the affair.
in prison a $25 million ex- granted his request to do so. plane, the filings said. in this case. A message left for
tortion case in New York, Steward was not returned. Avenatti explored running
is expected to face a trial Federal prosecutors in South- Avenatti faces 10 counts of against Trump in 2020 but
Wednesday in California ern California have accused wire fraud in connection Avenatti rose to prominence his political aspirations evap-
on charges he embezzled the 50-year-old lawyer, who with the allegations, which by sparring publicly with orated when he was crimi-
millions from his clients. is currently suspended from span from 2015 to 2019. Trump but criminal fraud nally charged. He pleaded
practicing law in California, charges in California and not guilty to all charges and
Opening statements are of cheating five of his clients He also faces charges in Cali- New York disrupted his rapid maintained he was a victim of
scheduled in Santa Ana in out of nearly $10 million by fornia of bankruptcy, bank ascent. He was sentenced in politically motivated attacks.
the second trial this month negotiating and collecting and tax fraud. He is expect- New York after he was con-
for Avenatti, who once rep- settlement payments on their ed to be tried on those alle- victed of attempted extortion Avenatti is currently sus-
resented porn actress Stormy behalf and funneling them to gations later this year after and other charges in con- pended from practicing law
Daniels in her lawsuit against accounts he controlled. Selna split a 36-count indict- nection with his representa- in California, according to
President Donald Trump. ment into two trials. tion of a Los Angeles youth the State Bar of California.
Avenatti is expected to repre- In one case, authorities said basketball league organizer
In this trial, federal prosecu- who was upset that Nike had

US life expectancy in 2020 saw biggest drop since WWII

(AP) — U.S. life expectan- mortality. But that trend stalled in 2015,
cy fell by a year and a half for several years, before hit-
in 2020, the largest one- Killers other than COVID-19 ting 78 years, 10 months in
year decline since World played a role. Drug overdoses 2019. Last year, the CDC
War II, public health offi- pushed life expectancy down, said, it dropped to about 77
cials said Wednesday. The particularly for whites. And years, 4 months.
decrease for both Black rising homicides were a small
Americans and Hispan- but significant reason for the Other findings in the new
ic Americans was even decline for Black Americans, CDC report:
worse: three years. said Elizabeth Arias, the re-
port’s lead author. —Hispanic Americans have
The drop spelled out by the longer life expectancy than
Centers for Disease Control Other problems affected white or Black Americans,
and Prevention is due mainly Black and Hispanic people, but had the largest decline
to the COVID-19 pandemic, including lack of access to in 2020. The three-year drop
which health officials said is quality health care, more was the largest since the CDC —Life expectancy fell nearly tion of the drop between
two years for men, but about 1917 and 1918, when World
responsible for close to 74% crowded living conditions, started tracking Hispanic life
of the overall life expectancy and a greater share of the expectancy 15 years ago. one year for women, widen- War I and a Spanish flu pan-
ing a longstanding gap. The demic devastated younger
decline. More than 3.3 mil- population in lower-paying
lion Americans died last year, jobs that required them to —Black life expectancy CDC estimated life expec- generations.
tancy of 74 years, 6 months
far more than any other year keep working when the pan- dropped nearly three years,
in U.S. history, with CO- demic was at its worst, ex- to 71 years, 10 months. It has for boys vs. 80 years, 2 Life expectancy bounced
months for girls.
back after those drops, and
VID-19 accounting for about perts said. not been that low since 2000.
experts believe it will this
11% of those deaths. More than 80% of last year’s time, too. But some said it
Life expectancy is an estimate —White life expectancy fell
Black life expectancy has not of the average number of by roughly 14 months to COVID deaths were peo- could take years.
ple 65 and older, CDC data
fallen so much in one year years a baby born in a given about 77 years, 7 months.
since the mid-1930s, during year might expect to live. It’s That was the lowest the low- shows. That actually dimin- Too many people have al-
ished the pandemic’s toll on ready died from COVID-19
the Great Depression. Health an important statistical snap- est life expectancy for that
officials have not tracked shot of a country’s health population since 2002. life expectancy at birth, which this year, while variants of
is swayed more by deaths of the coronavirus are spreading
Hispanic life expectancy for that can be influenced both
nearly as long, but the 2020 by sustained trends such as —COVID-19′s role varied younger adults and children among unvaccinated Ameri-
than those among seniors.
cans — many of them young-
decline was the largest re- obesity as well as more tem- by race and ethnicity. The
corded one-year drop. porary threats like pandemics coronavirus was responsible That’s why last year’s de- er adults, some experts said.
or war that might not endan- for 90% of the decline in life
The abrupt fall is “basical- ger those newborns in their expectancy among Hispanics, cline was just half as much as “We can’t. In 2021, we can’t
the three-year drop between get back to pre-pandemic”
ly catastrophic,” said Mark lifetimes. 68% among white people and
Hayward, a University of 59% among Black Ameri- 1942 and 1943, when young life expectancy, said Noreen
soldiers were dying in World Goldman, a Princeton Uni-
Texas sociology professor For decades, U.S. life expec- cans.
who studies changes in U.S. tancy was on the upswing. War II. And it was just a frac- versity researcher.