The jury foreman in the Karen Read retrial is calling on the FBI to rip open the case and start from scratch.

“There are so many holes that need to be filled,” Juror #1 told the Boston Herald Tuesday. “Now that the FBI knows Karen Read is not a suspect, something happened, and multiple jurors feel that way.”

Multiple jurors in the murder trial of Read have come forward to comment about the case since a jury returned a not guilty verdict.

Read, 45, was charged with second-degree murder by authorities who said she intentionally hit Boston police officer John O’Keefe with her car after dropping him off outside a party following a night of drinking in the Massachusetts suburbs.

The high-profile case culminated in a not guilty verdict on murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene charges. The jury found Read guilty of operating a vehicle while under the influence.

Karen Read gestures to supporters as the jury entered another day of deliberations in Dedham, Massachusetts. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)

Juror #1, who first spoke to the Herald exclusively Friday, is now urging the FBI to “get justice for John O’Keefe.” It has already been announced that federal investigators did look into the web of police connections to the case and did not charge anyone.

But the foreman, who asked that his name be withheld, said that’s not good enough.

“No one local should be involved in the investigation,” he said Tuesday. “It was lazy police work … and we should start some type of investigation of what went on in that house.”

The FBI in Boston “declined comment” on the juror’s appeal for a new probe.

As the foreman has already said, the fact that investigators didn’t swarm the house at the murder scene on 34 Fairview Road in Canton during a nor’easter is a glaring “red flag” in this murder case.

The juror, a 45-year-old married father of three who grew up in Boston, says he is haunted by the belief that “something went on inside that house.” He doesn’t want to give up after more than two months put into this trial.

“We just need to find justice for John,” the foreman added, “and get his mother some peace.”

The Karen Read jury foreman, Juror #1, wants the FBI to reopen their probe. (Photo courtesy of Regan Communications)

Investigator, jurors speak out after verdict

Several jurors and the lead investigator have spoken out about the case in aftermath of not guilty verdict.

The trial centered in part on lead investigator Michael Proctor, who defense attorneys described as biased against Read from the beginning. The Massachusetts State Police trial board found Proctor guilty of sending crude and defamatory text messages about Read while leading the investigation into her. He was fired and has drawn ire from Read supporters who believe he played a key role in a cover-up to frame her.

Proctor told NBC’s “Dateline” that the idea he is corrupt and framed Read is a “ridiculous” accusation. He specifically said an accusation that he cracked Read’s taillight to make it look like she backed into O’Keefe is “absolutely not” true.

“I laugh because it’s such a ridiculous accusation,” Proctor told the program. “There’s not one piece of evidence or fact to support that because it did not happen.”

The judge in the case announced via court papers that the jurors’ names would be sealed from public view due to safety concerns. But one of the jurors, who identified himself only as “Jason” in an interview with TMZ, said he did not believe Read collided with O’Keefe. He also said he did not think investigators planted taillight pieces at the scene to frame Read.

“I don’t really know if there was a cover-up or not. I know that’s the big conspiracy about it but I don’t really know. All I know is there was a lot of holes in their investigation,” the juror said.

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Another juror, Paula Prado, told local news stations her mind changed about the case over the course of the last three weeks. At first, she thought Read was guilty of manslaughter, but her opinion changed as the case progressed.

“As the weeks passed by, I just realized there was too many holes that we couldn’t fill. And there’s nothing that put her on the scene in our opinion, besides just dropping John O’Keefe off,” Prado told media.

A third juror, Janet Jimenez, told WCVB-TV that she changed her mind about Read’s guilt during deliberations. Jimenez told WCVB she felt there were holes in the investigation, and ultimately she decided Read was not guilty.

“I was hoping that my fellow jurors could help me go through all of this, so I went in with a very open mind but definitely leaning toward that she was guilty,” she said.

Massachusetts State Police said in a statement that it extends its “sincerest condolences to the loved ones of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe.” The statement said the events of the last three years have “challenged” the department to review its actions and improve accountability and oversight.

“Under my direction as colonel, the state police has, and will continue to, improve in these regards. Our focus remains on delivering excellent police services that reflect the value of professionalism and maintain public trust,” Colonel Geoffrey Noble said in the statement.

The jurors, state police and Proctor are not the first to speak out about the verdict. Upon leaving court, Read told a crowd of reporters and onlookers: “No one has fought harder for justice for John O’Keefe than I have.”

Her father, Bill Read, said that he was “thankful that it’s over.” He added: “We always knew Karen was innocent. I’m glad she is free of this mess. Just a weight off our shoulders. The power of the state is immense, and we were able to fight it.”

Some of the key witnesses in the trial also released a joint statement in which they called the not guilty ruling a “devastating miscarriage of justice.”

The joint statement was issued by several people including Brian Albert, who owned the home where the party took place, and Jennifer McCabe, Albert’s sister-in-law, who was with Read and O’Keefe on the night of O’Keefe’s death.

Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey said only: “The jury has spoken.”

Joseph Dwinell of the Boston Herald and Patrick Whittle of the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Grocery giant Kroger revealed during its first-quarter earnings call this month that it will shut down about 60 underperforming stores over the next 18 months. At the same time, the company intends to open new locations throughout this year and the next.

“We’re simplifying our business and reviewing areas that will not be meaningful to our future growth. Unfortunately, today, not all of our stores are delivering the sustainable results we need,” said Kroger Chairman and Interim CEO Ronald Sargent in the June 20 earnings call.

“We don’t take these decisions lightly, but this will make the company more efficient, and Kroger will offer roles in other stores to all associates currently employed at affected stores.”

The specific stores targeted for closure have not been officially confirmed.

Kroger is the parent company to King Soopers and City Market. King Soopers has 120 grocery stores in 37 cities in the state, while City Market has 32 grocery stores in 27 cities, according to their websites.

When asked if any Colorado locations would be affected, a Kroger representative told The Post that there are no further details to share at this time.

Other media outlets have already identified several locations facing closures in Illinois, Kentucky, Georgia, Indiana, Wisconsin, Texas, West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee.

United Food & Commercial Workers Local 400, representing 35,000 members in retail food, health care, department stores, food processing, and other sectors across Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, announced that four of their represented stores will be closing.

“The communities served by our members at these stores will suffer as a direct result of Kroger prioritizing Wall Street investors over their customers and hard-working employees,” said UFCW Local 400 Union President Mark Federici in a statement.

“Closing these stores will not only result in fewer good, union job opportunities, it will further limit food access in rural areas where there are few if any alternatives to buy groceries – all for a purported ‘modest financial benefit’ to the company.”

Looking forward, Kroger also expects new store openings in 2026 and beyond.

Though it was not revealed where these new stores will be opening, company leaders said they will consider sites across the country, focusing on areas where they have competitive advantages or growth potential.

On Feb. 1 of this year, Kroger operated more than 2,700 stores. The planned closures account for about 2.2% of its total locations.

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The company said Kroger held off on closing stores amid efforts to merge with fellow grocery giant Albertsons.

Kroger and Albertsons first proposed the merger in 2022. They argued that combining would help them better compete with big retailers like Walmart and Costco.

However, the Federal Trade Commission and two states, Washington and Colorado, sued to block the merger last year, saying it would raise prices and lower workers’ wages by eliminating competition.

The company expects the closures to have a “modest financial benefit” overall and plans to reinvest the savings from the closures into improving customer experience.

By MIKE CATALINI

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal charges accusing her of assaulting and interfering with immigration officers outside a New Jersey detention center during a congressional oversight visit at the facility.

“They will not intimidate me. They will not stop me from doing my job,” she said outside the courthouse in Newark after the brief hearing.

McIver, a Democrat, was charged in a complaint by interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba, a Republican appointed by President Donald Trump, following the May 9 visit to Newark’s Delaney Hall. Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses the privately owned, 1,000-bed facility as a detention center.

This month she was indicted on three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding and interfering with federal officials. Habba said two counts carry a maximum sentence of up to eight years in prison. The third has a maximum of one year.

During Wednesday’s hearing, McIver stood and told U.S. District Judge Jamel Semper: “Your honor, I plead not guilty.” The judge set a Nov. 10 trial date.

Outside the courthouse, McIver warned that anyone who pushes back against the Trump administration will find themselves in a similar position.

McIver’s lawyer, former U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Paul Fishman, said McIver pleaded not guilty because she is not guilty. He said federal agents created a risky situation at Delaney Hall.

The indictment is the latest development in a legal-political drama that has seen the Trump administration take Democratic officials from New Jersey’s largest city to court amid the president’s ongoing immigration crackdown and Democrats’ efforts to respond. The prosecution is a rare federal criminal case against a sitting member of Congress for allegations other than fraud or corruption.

During the same visit to the detention center, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested on a trespassing charge that was later dropped. Baraka is suing Habba over what he called a malicious prosecution.

A nearly two-minute video clip released by the Department of Homeland Security shows McIver at the facility inside a chain-link fence just before Baraka’s arrest on other side of the barrier, where other people were protesting. McIver and uniformed officials go through the gate, and she joins others shouting that they should circle the mayor.

The video shows McIver in a tightly packed group of people and officers. At one point her left elbow and then her right elbow push into an officer wearing a dark face covering and an olive green uniform emblazoned with the word “Police.”

It is not clear from police bodycam video if the contact was intentional, incidental or the result of jostling in the chaotic scene.

The complaint alleges that she “slammed” her forearm into an agent and then tried to restrain the agent by grabbing him.

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The indictment also says she placed her arms around the mayor to try to stop his arrest and says again that she slammed her forearm into and grabbed an agent.

Democrats including New Jersey Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez, who were with McIver at the detention center that day, have criticized the arrest and disputed the charges.

Members of Congress are legally authorized to go into federal immigration facilities as part of their oversight powers, even without notice. Congress passed a 2019 appropriations bill spelling out that authority.

McIver, 39, first came to Congress in September in a special election after the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. left a vacancy in the 10th District. She was then elected to a full term in November.

A Newark native, she was president of the Newark City Council from 2022 to 2024 and worked in the city’s public schools before that.

By EDITH M. LEDERER

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations, a collaborative global dream built into reality out of the ashes of World War II, marks its 80th anniversary this month. There’s little to celebrate.

Its clout on the world stage is diminished. Facing major funding cuts from the United States and others, it has been forced to shed jobs and start tackling long-delayed reforms. Its longtime credo of “multilateralism” is under siege. Its most powerful body, the Security Council, has been blocked from taking action to end the two major wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

And as the latest conflict between Israel, Iran and the United States flared, it watched from the sidelines.

Four generations after its founding, as it tries to chart a new path for its future, a question hangs over the institution and the nearly 150,000 people it employs and oversees: Can the United Nations remain relevant in an increasingly contentious and fragmented world?

With its dream of collaboration drifting, can it even survive?

An act of optimism created it

When the United Nations was born in San Francisco on June 26, 1945, the overriding goal of the 50 participants who signed the U.N. Charter was stated in its first words: “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.”

Earlier this year, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sounded that same theme: “Eight decades later, one can draw a direct line between the creation of the United Nations and the prevention of a third world war.”

There has been no such war — thus far. But conflicts still rage.

They continue not only in Gaza and Ukraine but Sudan, eastern Congo, Haiti and Myanmar – to name a few – and, most recently, Iran and Israel. The needs of tens of millions of people caught up in fighting and trapped in poverty have increased even as rich donor nations, not just the United States, are reducing their aid budgets.

The U.N. General Assembly is planning a commemoration on the 80th anniversary on June 26. This week an exhibition on the San Francisco meeting opened at U.N. headquarters with a rare centerpiece — the original U.N. Charter, on loan from the U.S. National Archives in Washington.

But the mood in the halls of the U.N. headquarters in New York is grim.

Diplomats are anxious about the immediate future, especially the outcome expected in August of a U.S. review of the United Nations and other multilateral institutions ordered by President Donald Trump. And U.N. staff here and in more than 60 offices, agencies and operations that get money from its regular operating budget are facing 20% job cuts, part of Guterres’ reform effort and reaction to already announced Trump funding cuts.

“It’s not something to celebrate,” Kazakhstan’s U.N. Ambassador Kairat Umarov said of the upcoming anniversary.

“This should be united nations — not disunited,” he said. “Collectively, we can do a lot,” but today “we cannot agree on many things, so we agree to disagree.”

A changing world accommodated a changing UN

In a different world of land-line telephones, radios and propeller planes, the U.N. Charter was signed by just 50 nations — mainly from Latin America and Europe, with half a dozen from the Mideast, and just a few from Asia and Africa.

Over the decades, its membership has nearly quadrupled to 193 member nations, with 54 African countries now the largest bloc followed by the 54 from Asia and the Pacific. And the world has changed dramatically with the advent of computers and satellites, becoming what the late former Secretary-General Kofi Annan called a “global village.”

The U.N. system has also expanded enormously from its origins, which focused on peace and security, economic and social issues, justice and trusteeships for colonies.

Today, the map of the U.N. system looks like a multi-headed octopus with many tentacles — and miniature tentacles sprouting from those. In 2023, its secretariat and numerous funds, agencies and entities dealing with everything from children and refugees to peacekeeping and human rights had over 133,000 staff worldwide.

Kishore Mahbubani, who served twice as Singapore’s U.N. ambassador, credited the United Nations with thus far preventing World War III. While there are still wars, deaths have continued a long-term decline “and the world is still, overall, a much more peaceful place,” he said.

“And many small states still live in peace, not having to worry about the neighbors occupying them,” said Mahbubani, a respected geopolitical analyst.

Mahbubani and others also point to successes in the 71 U.N. peacekeeping operations since 1948, including in Angola, Cambodia, Sierra Leone (which is currently a member of the Security Council) and Liberia (which will join in January).

There is also wide praise for specialized U.N. agencies, especially those dealing with hunger, refugees and children as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is the U.N’s nuclear watchdog, and the International Telecommunications Union. Among numerous responsibilities, it allocates the global radio spectrum and satellite orbits and brings digital connectivity to millions.

As Guterres told the Security Council earlier this year, “The United Nations remains the essential, one-of-a-kind meeting ground to advance peace, sustainable development and human rights.”

What actually gets done at the UN?

Every September, world leaders get a global platform at the General Assembly. And every day their ambassadors and diplomats meet to debate issues from conflicts to climate change to the fight for gender equality and quality education. Sometimes, such talks produce little or no results. At others, achievements get overlooked or ignored by the broader world community, far from the hubs of diplomacy.

And the Security Council is the only place where Russia and Ukraine regularly face off over the ongoing war following Russia’s 2022 invasion — and where the Palestinian and Israeli ambassadors frequently confront each other.

Despite its successes and achievements over past decades, Singapore’s Mahbubani called the U.N. today “a very sad place,” lamenting that Guterres had failed “to inspire humanity” as the late Pope Francis did. “But,” Mahbubani said, “it should celebrate the fact it is alive and not dead.”

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John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who was national security adviser during Trump’s first term, was also critical of the state of the U.N. in 2025. “It’s probably in the worst shape it’s been in since it was founded,” said Bolton, now an outspoken Trump critic.

He pointed to gridlock in the Security Council on key issues. He blames rising international tensions that divide the council’s five veto-wielding powers – with Russia and China facing off against U.S., Britain and France on many global challenges.

Richard Gowan, U.N. director of the International Crisis Group, a think tank, said the United Nations has bounced from crisis to crisis since the 1990s. With the gloomy geopolitical picture and U.S. funding cuts impacting humanitarian operations, he said this “is not just another blow-up that will blow over.”

“Everyone seems to be resigned to the fact that you’re going to have a smaller U.N. in a few years’ time,” Gowan said. “And that is partially because virtually every member state has other priorities.”

What happens in the UN’s next chapter?

Guterres has launched several major reform efforts, getting approval from U.N. member nations last September for a “Pact for the Future” – a blueprint to bring the world together to tackle 21st-century challenges. Gowan said Guterres’ successor, who will be elected next year and take over in 2027, will have to shrink the organization. But many cuts, consolidations and changes will require approval of the divided U.N. membership. Possible radical reforms include merging U.N. aid and development agencies to avoid duplication.

Don’t forget, says Gowan, that a huge amount of diplomatic business — much of it having nothing to do with the United Nations — gets done because it is in New York, a place to have those conversations.

“If you were to close the U.N., there would also be a lot of intelligence people and spies who would be deeply disappointed. Because it’s a wonderful place to cultivate your contacts,” Gowan said. “Americans may not realize that having the U.N. in New York is a bonanza for us spying on other nations. So we shouldn’t let that go.”

Ian Bremmer, who heads the Eurasia Group, a political risk and consulting firm, said the Trump administration’s attempts to undermine the United Nations — which the United States conceived in 1945 — will make China more important. With Trump exiting from the World Health Organization, the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA and cutting humanitarian funding, he said, China will become “the most influential and the most deep-pocketed” in those agencies.

Bremmer, who calls himself a close adviser to Guterres, insisted the United Nations remains relevant — “with no caveats.”

“It’s a relatively poorly resourced organization. It has no military capabilities. It has no autonomous foreign policy,” Bremmer said. “But its legitimacy and its credibility in speaking for 8 billion people on this little planet of ours is unique.”

He added: “The important thing is that as long as the great powers decide not to leave the United Nations, every day that they stay is a vote of confidence in the U.N.”

Expansion of the U.N. Security Council is probably the most fertile area for potential change. Decades of discussions have failed to agree on how to enlarge the 15-member council to reflect the global realities of the 21st century, though there is wide agreement that Africa and Latin America deserve permanent seats.

Singapore’s Mahbubani said he believes the United Nations “will definitely survive.” The “genius” of its founders, he said, was to give the big powers after World War II a veto in the Security Council, preventing the global body from dying as its predecessor, the League of Nations, did. That survival, Mahbubani believes, will continue: “It will,” he said, “outlast us all.”

Edith M. Lederer, chief correspondent at the United Nations, has been covering international affairs for more than half a century.