By JEFF MARTIN

ATLANTA (AP) — Three inmates who escaped from a jail east of Atlanta, including a murder suspect, commandeered a terrified Lyft driver’s car to reach south Florida before she was rescued and they were captured, according to details revealed in court records.

The driver told FBI agents that the men used a fake name to order the ride, put a rope around her neck from behind her, dragged her into the backseat and threatened to kill her, according to a court affidavit filed late Tuesday and obtained by The Associated Press.

The inmates were able to “compromise” a portion of a cell inside the DeKalb County Jail to make their escape, said DeKalb County Chief Deputy Temetris Atkins. He didn’t provide more specifics because jailers don’t want other inmates to know the facility’s weaknesses.

“We repaired the area that was compromised, and we’re looking at other areas that are similar to that to fortify them to make sure that they are not compromised in the same manner,” Atkins said at a Tuesday news conference.

DeKalb County Sheriff Melody Maddox described the jail as an “aging facility that’s deteriorating right before our eyes.” The jail is in Decatur, about 10 miles east of downtown Atlanta.

DeKalb County Sheriff Melody Maddox speaks to journalists Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025, during a news conference in Decatur, Ga., about the escaped inmates who were captured late Monday. (Ben Gray /Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

The escape was discovered early Monday during a routine security check, authorities said. After jailers realized the three were gone, investigators listened to recordings of conversations they’d had on recorded phone lines. They learned that one of the inmates had contacted people on the outside who helped them evade capture after the escape, U.S. Marshal Thomas Brown said.

The inmates were picked up by an unnamed man and taken to one of their girlfriends’ homes, Brown said. Then, a Lyft ride was ordered using a fake, female name.

Officers tracked the car as it traveled to south Florida with the aid of license plate readers, devices that can alert law enforcement to the locations of wanted vehicles. When they caught up with the car and tried to stop it, one of the inmates jumped out and ran but was arrested along with a second inmate, according to a court affidavit.

Investigators also learned that the men used the Lyft driver’s credit card for a short-term rental of a home in Miramar, Florida, where officers apprehended the third inmate and rescued the driver, court records state.

The driver told investigators that she was held in the car for six to 10 hours as they tried to gain access to her phone and online banking records. After trying to escape once, she endured “increased threats of being shot, raped, and tortured,” an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit.

“As you can imagine, the Lyft driver is very traumatized by this,” Brown said.

All three inmates were charged with kidnapping as well as the escape, according to criminal complaints. The court documents did not yet list the names of any lawyers who might be able to speak on their behalf.

The inmates range in age from 24 to 31, with the youngest one charged with murder and armed robbery. The other two inmates face charges that include armed robbery and arson.

The sheriff’s office had warned that the men might be armed and were considered dangerous after their escape.

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The inmate accused of murder and armed robbery, Stevenson Charles, 24, has had several run-ins with law officers in Georgia and Florida. He had been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to multiple counts of kidnapping and bank robbery, a federal agent wrote in a Monday affidavit regarding the recent jail escape.

After being sentenced, the agent wrote, Charles was turned over to DeKalb County authorities on Dec. 5 to face the murder charge, details of which were not immediately available. A federal criminal complaint charging him with the escape does not list an attorney who could be contacted to comment on his behalf, and it wasn’t clear whether he has one at this early stage of the case.

In one of multiple cases involving Charles in South Florida, he is accused of meeting a man through the Grindr online dating application and then pulling a gun on him when they met in person at a Miami residence in 2022. Charles then drove the man to various Miami area banks, withdrawing money from the victim’s accounts, court records show.

By AAMER MADHANI

The Trump administration is deploying 350 National Guard troops to New Orleans ahead of the New Year, launching another federal deployment in the city at the same time that an immigration crackdown led by Border Patrol is underway.

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Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Tuesday that Guard members, as they have in other deployments in large cities, will be tasked with supporting federal law enforcement partners, including the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. Parnell added that the National Guard troops will be deployed through February.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, praised President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for coordinating the deployment and predicted the Guard’s presence would have a positive impact.

“It’s going to help us further crack down on the violence here in the city of New Orleans and elsewhere around Louisiana,” Landry said in an appearance on the Fox News’ “The Will Cain Show.” “And so a big shoutout to both of them.”

Critics have argued a National Guard deployment is unwarranted and could cause fear in the community, and they point out that New Orleans has actually seen a decrease in violent crime rates.

The deployment of the National Guard to the Democrat-led city comes as Border Patrol agents have been carrying out an immigration crackdown since the beginning of the month. According to the Department of Homeland Security, agents have arrested several hundred people during the first couple weeks of what is expected to be a months-long operation that has a goal of 5,000 arrests.

Back in September, Landry asked Trump to send a 1,000 federally funded troops to Louisiana cities, citing concerns about crime. Landry has praised Trump for sending troops to other cities, including Washington and Memphis, Tennessee.

The president has also taken a shine to Landry. Trump on Sunday announced he was appointing the governor to serve as his special envoy to Greenland, the strategic, vast, semi-autonomous territory of Denmark that Trump has said the U.S. needs to take over.

New Orleans has been on pace for much of the year to have its lowest number of murders in decades, according to preliminary data from the city’s police department. There have been 97 homicides in 2025 as of Nov. 1, including 14 revelers who were killed on New Year’s Day during a truck attack on Bourbon Street.

A U.S. Army veteran driving a pickup truck that bore the flag of the Islamic State group wrought carnage on New Orleans’ raucous New Year’s celebration as he steered around a police blockade and slammed into revelers before being shot dead by police.

There were 124 homicides last year and 193 in 2023, according to city figures. Armed robberies, aggravated assaults, carjackings, shootings and property crimes have also trended downward.

New Orleans is no stranger to having National Guard members in the city. In January, 100 Guard members were sent to the city to help with security measures following the New Year’s Day truck attack. Guard members were also present for major events in the city this year, including the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras.

Associated Press reporter Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, contributed to this report.

By Erik Wasson and Steven T. Dennis, Bloomberg News

The Republican-controlled Congress has been very good to most of corporate America this year. Foremost among the boons is a $4 trillion tax cut package that extended and added generous breaks for businesses large and small.

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But it hasn’t been all good news for U.S. companies and some industries have benefited more than others. The legislative branch’s acquiescence to President Donald Trump’s sharp tariff increases raised input costs across the economy and provoked retaliatory moves against U.S. farm exports.

The health-care sector, renewable energy companies and Las Vegas’s casinos have taken legislative hits while chipmakers, drug companies and private equity fended off potentially costly congressional interventions.

Here are this year’s winners and losers:

Winners

Nvidia

America’s most valuable company beat back influential Republican China hawks’ efforts to insert provisions in legislation aimed at ensuring U.S. companies get first dibs on Nvidia’s products. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang’s visits to Congress and the White House also helped pave the way for Trump administration actions easing export restrictions so the company could sell advanced chips to Chinese customers.

Private equity

The struggle to preserve a tax break cherished by private equity proved to be one of the rare instances this year when congressional Republicans stood up to Trump, rebuffing the president’s early demands to raise taxes on carried interest.

The provision would have eliminated a lower income tax rate for a key portion of private equity executives’ compensation. PE firms worked to squelch the change in tandem with venture capital and real estate partnerships, whose executives and dealmakers also benefit. Better yet, private equity also won an expanded interest expensing tax break.

Oil & gas

Energy companies secured a tax break worth more than $1 billion for oil and gas producers in the Trump tax package. The provision allows businesses subject to a 15% corporate alternative minimum tax to deduct certain drilling costs when calculating their taxable income. Companies including ConocoPhillips Co., Ovintiv Inc. and Civitas Resources Inc. lobbied in favor of it.

Crypto

Digital assets companies achieved a breakthrough with the passage of a light-touch regulatory law for dollar-pegged stablecoins, clearing the way for broader use of the technology in everyday finance. An industry drive for a broader rewrite of securities and commodities laws to set up favorable regulation of cryptoassets is moving closer to the finish line. A $263 million campaign war chest the crypto industry has amassed in super-PACs is sure to help.

Pharma

Drug companies mostly succeeded in blocking legislative efforts to control their soaring prices. While Trump talked up requiring massive price cuts from pharmaceutical companies, Republican leaders on Capitol Hill made no moves to codify such a policy. Still, the Senate’s confirmation of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. empowered a foe of vaccine makers.

Tech giants

Technology giants have stymied public pressure for federal legislation to regulate social media and other tech products amid rising concern over harm to children. Even so, the industry so far hasn’t been able to secure a federal law blocking state regulation of artificial intelligence. The Trump administration stepped in with an executive order to override state AI regulations, though that faces legal challenges.

Financial planners

The wealth management industry came out ahead when Senate Republican leader John Thune’s campaign to add a repeal of the estate tax to Trump’s tax law foundered. The tax overhaul kept in place the complex loopholes that the rich employ financial planners to navigate on their behalf.

Defense & aerospace

The defense industry thwarted efforts by Elon Musk’s DOGE team to cut military spending and scored big increases in the Pentagon budget. Trump’s massive tax and spending package included $150 billion in new defense spending.

A defense policy bill Congress just passed came in $8 billion above the White House request. Notable beneficiaries include Anduril Industries Inc., Palantir Technologies Inc. and Boeing Co. with the new F-47 fighter. A provision to allow the Pentagon to repair weapons systems without paying contractors to do so was defeated.

Domestic car dealers

Car dealers won a tax break for loan interest on purchases of new U.S.-built automobiles.

Large corporations

The $4 trillion Trump tax cut bill extended a bevy of 2017 tax breaks that had expired. Manufacturers won bonus depreciation for the cost of production upgrades and a research and development tax break. Attempts to pay for these by scaling back the corporate state and local tax deduction and to increase the stock buyback tax were beaten back by a heavy lobbying effort.

Small businesses

The 2017 law that allowed pass-through businesses to deduct up to 20% of their qualified business income from their taxable income was permanently extended.

Losers

Hospitals

A $50 billion bailout for rural hospitals included in Trump’s tax cut plan won’t offset the loss of funding from Medicaid cuts in the law. Millions of Americans will lose health insurance in the coming years, according to forecasts, leading to a surge in uncompensated care in emergency rooms.

Health insurers

Big insurers are in line to lose millions of customers with the expiration of enhanced Obamacare premium tax credits at the end of this month. Fewer healthy people signing up for policies also could further harm insurers’ bottom lines. While a bipartisan group of moderates in both parties are trying to renew the credits in January they face an uphill battle against Republican congressional leaders, who oppose the effort.

Green energy

The Trump tax bill ended former President Joe Biden’s signature tax credits for solar, wind and other renewable energy sources and curtailed the $7,500 consumer electric vehicle tax credit for cars made by Tesla Inc., Rivian Automotive Inc. and General Motors Co. Renewable energy companies Sunnova Energy International Inc., Solar Mosaic Inc. and Pine Gate Renewables LLC all filed for bankruptcy protection this year in part due to the ending of tax incentives.

Banks

Crypto bros’ gain is bankers’ loss as the stablecoin legislation Congress passed this year threatens the banking sector’s long and profitable dominance of the payments system. Still, bankers’ congressional allies blocked votes on credit card competition legislation, which would cut into the nearly $190 billion in swipe fees retailers pay annually to banks, Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. Congress also repealed a Biden-era regulation limiting bank overdraft fees.

Casinos

Under the tax bill, professional gamblers would only be able to deduct 90% of their losses against their winnings, leading to a situation where they could still owe income tax if they break even over a year or lose money overall. Major casino companies are pushing to repeal the provision, fearing a drop-off in business from their best customers.

Airlines

Airlines lost hundreds of millions of dollars in ticket revenue during the longest government shutdown in history as the Trump administration moved to curtail flights during the congressional impasse. Delta Air Lines Inc. alone estimated it took a $200 million hit from the shutdown.

Importers

Retailers and other importers stung by Trump’s tariffs got little help from lawmakers this year, as Republicans largely sat back while the president claimed broad authority to rewrite the world’s trading order. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a close Trump ally, has so far managed to delay a looming floor fight over the legality of the tariffs until at least the end of January.

With assistance from Roxana Tiron, Ari Natter, Katanga Johnson and Emily Birnbaum.

©2025 Bloomberg News. Visit at bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday it was replacing its longstanding lottery system for H-1B work visas with a new approach that prioritizes skilled, higher-paid foreign workers.

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The change follows a series of actions by the Trump administration aimed at reshaping a visa program that critics say has become a pipeline for overseas workers willing to work for lower pay, but supporters say drives innovation.

“The existing random selection process of H-1B registrations was exploited and abused by U.S. employers who were primarily seeking to import foreign workers at lower wages than they would pay American workers,” said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Matthew Tragesser.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation imposing a $100,000 annual H-1B visa fee on highly skilled workers, which is being challenged in court. The president also rolled out a $1 million “gold card” visa as a pathway to U.S. citizenship for wealthy individuals.

A press release announcing the new rule says it is “in line with other key changes the administration has made, such as the Presidential Proclamation that requires employers to pay an additional $100,000 per visa as a condition of eligibility.”

Historically, H-1B visas have been awarded through a lottery system. This year, Amazon was by far the top recipient, with more than 10,000 visas approved, followed by Tata Consultancy Services, Microsoft, Apple and Google. California has the highest concentration of H-1B workers.

FILE – The Amazon logo is displayed at a news conference in New York on Sept. 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

The new system will “implement a weighted selection process that will increase the probability that H-1B visas are allocated to higher-skilled and higher-paid” foreign workers, according to Tuesday’s press release. It will go into effect Feb. 27, 2026, and will apply to the upcoming H-1B cap registration season.

Supporters of the H-1B program say it is an important pathway to hiring healthcare workers and educators. They say it drives innovation and economic growth in the U.S. and allows employers to fill jobs in specialized fields.

Critics argue that the visas often go to entry-level positions rather than senior roles requiring specialized skills. While the program is intended to prevent wage suppression or the displacement of U.S. workers, critics say companies can pay lower wages by classifying jobs at the lowest skill levels, even when the workers hired have more experience.

The number of new visas issued annually is capped at 65,000, plus an additional 20,000 for people with a master’s degree or higher.