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Tennessee man who killed 8 gets life in prison in surprise plea deal after new evidence surfaces

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:50:06 GMT

GALLATIN, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man who had been facing a death penalty trial in the killings of eight people in rural Westmoreland in April 2019, including his parents, uncle and a 12-year-old girl, pleaded guilty Wednesday to eight counts of first-degree murder in exchange for a sentence of life without parole.The surprise plea came after Sumner County prosecutors were given brain scans of Michael Cummins that showed “significant problems,” Sumner County District Attorney General Ray Whitley told reporters after the hearing.Defense attorneys could have used the scans to try to convince a jury not to sentence Cummins to death, Whitley said. While he thinks prosecutors ultimately could have prevailed in securing the death penalty, he said it was a “close case.”Judge David Gay and attorneys for both sides had travelled to Knoxville earlier this year to pick a jury pool ahead of an April trial date when the new evidence was revealed, forcing a delay, Gay said in court Wednesday. Ga...

Flaring wildfire in southern B.C. traps backcountry campers as only road is cut

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:50:06 GMT

VANCOUVER — An airborne assessment was underway for a wildfire in southern British Columbia that has grown aggressively, trapping dozens of campers in a park southwest of Keremeos.Erick Thompson, an information officer with the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen, says about 80 people are trapped in Cathedral Provincial Park as the Crater Creek blaze is burning near the only road into the area.He says BC Wildfire Service officials and representatives from the regional district were assessing the situation by air to determine how best to get campers and staff from the privately run Cathedral Lakes Lodge out of the area.Thompson says those trapped have been advised to shelter in place while an evacuation plan is formed.An evacuation order was issued as the Casper Creek wildfire and the nearby Gillanders Creek blaze, which covered a combined 11 square kilometres early Tuesday, grew to what the wildfire service estimates is now 100 square kilometres.A separate fire, west of Lilloo...

Some abortion drug restrictions are upheld by an appeals court in a case bound for the Supreme Court

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:50:06 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New restrictions on access to a drug used in the most common form of abortion would be imposed under a federal appeals court ruling issued Wednesday, but the Supreme Court will have the final say.The ruling by three judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned part of a lower court ruling that revoked the Food and Drug Administration’s approval — more than two decades ago — of mifepristone. But it left intact part of the ruling that would end the availability of the drug by mail and require that the drug be administered in the presence of a physician. Those restrictions won’t take effect, at least right away, because the Supreme Court previously intervened to keep the drug available during the legal fight.At issue is a Texas-based federal judge’s April ruling revoking the drug’s approval, which was granted more than 20 years ago by the Food and Drug Administration. There is no precedent for a U.S. court overturning the approval of a dr...

Kansas prosecutor says material seized in police raid of weekly newspaper should be returned

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:50:06 GMT

MARION, Kansas (AP) — The prosecutor in Marion County, Kansas, said Wednesday that police should return all seized material to a weekly newspaper that was raided by officers in a case that has drawn national scrutiny of press freedom.Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey said his review of police seizures from the Marion County Record found “insufficient evidence exists to establish a legally sufficient nexus between this alleged crime and the places searched and the items seized.”“As a result, I have submitted a proposed order asking the court to release the evidence seized. I have asked local law enforcement to return the material seized to the owners of the property,” Ensey said in a news release.Even without the computers, cellphones and other office equipment taken in a police raid, the new edition of the Record made it to newsstands Wednesday after a frenzied scramble by the newspaper’s small staff.“SEIZED … but not silenced,” read the front-page headline in 2-inch-tal...

A former fundraiser for Rep. George Santos has been charged with wire fraud and identity theft

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:50:06 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A former fundraiser for U.S. Rep. George Santos was indicted Wednesday on federal charges that he impersonated a high-ranking congressional aide while soliciting contributions for the New York Republican’s campaign.Sam Miele was charged with four counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in an alleged scheme to defraud donors and obtain money for Santos under false pretenses. Prosecutors said Miele impersonated a high-ranking aide to a House member with leadership responsibilities, using a fake name and email address to trick at least a dozen prospective donors.Santos was not charged in the case.The indictment did not name the person who was impersonated by name, but the details of the charges match with multiple news reports identifying the aide as Dan Meyer, now retired as the longtime chief of staff to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who at the time was minority leader.Miele pleaded not guilty to the charges in Brooklyn federal court and was...

Court watchdog files complaint against a judge who ordered ‘religious-liberty training’ for lawyers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:50:06 GMT

A court watchdog has filed a complaint against the federal judge who ordered “religious-liberty training” for a trio of Southwest Airlines lawyers as part of their punishment for not fully following his orders in a case involving speech about abortion.The leader of Fix the Court says U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr’s choice of training conducted by a Christian legal-advocacy group is “strange and unprecedented.”Fix the Court, a small, nonpartisan group known mostly for monitoring the U.S. Supreme Court, filed the judicial-misconduct petition Tuesday with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeal in New Orleans. The group’s executive director, Gabe Roth, took particular aim at the Dallas judge’s selection of Alliance Defending Freedom to conduct day-long training for three Southwest lawyers in a case involving a flight attendant who said she was fired for comments objecting to abortion. The conservative ADF has represented clients opposing abortion, same-sex marriages and ...

Ada Deer, influential Native American leader from Wisconsin, dies at 88

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:50:06 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Ada Deer, an esteemed Native American leader from Wisconsin and the first woman to lead the Bureau of Indian Affairs, has died at age 88.Deer passed away Tuesday evening from natural causes, her godson Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, confirmed on Wednesday. She had entered hospice care four days earlier.Born August 7, 1935, on a Menominee reservation in Keshena, Wisconsin, Deer is remembered as a trailblazer and fierce advocate for tribal sovereignty. She played a key role in reversing Termination Era policies of the 1950s that took away the Menominee people’s federal tribal recognition.“Ada was one of those extraordinary people who would see something that needed to change in the world and then make it her job and everyone else’s job to see to it that it got changed,” Wikler said. “She took America from the Termination Era to an unprecedented level of tribal sovereignty.”Deer was the first member of the Menominee Tribe to graduate ...

Tuohys’ lawyers to respond to Michael Oher’s accusations as he fights conservatorship

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:50:06 GMT

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Lawyers for a prominent Memphis couple planned to speak with reporters Wednesday about former NFL player Michael Oher’s effort to take control of his finances in a now-public dispute involving those who inspired the Oscar-nominated movie “The Blind Side.”Attorneys for Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy scheduled a news conference to discuss Oher’s accusations that they enriched themselves at his expense. Oher moved in with the Tuohys before his senior year of high school, a story that led to a movie that received an Academy Award nomination for best picture in 2010. The Tuohys have called the allegations ridiculous and part of a shakedown attempt.Oher filed a petition Monday in a Tennessee probate court accusing the Tuohys of lying to him by having him sign papers making them his conservators rather than his adoptive parents nearly two decades ago. Oher, now 37, wants a full accounting of assets considering his life story produced millions of dollars, though he sa...

Review: ‘Blue Beetle’ is a little more than a bug in in the superhero system

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:50:06 GMT

Franz Kafka never realized how close he came to kickstarting a superhero franchise. Ever since Gregor Samsa awoke in his bed to find himself transformed into a monstrous dung beetle in “The Metamorphosis,” we’ve had spider-men, wasps, ant-men, crime-fighting ticks and mighty mantises — such a super swarm of insectoids that you might be tempted to reach for a fly swatter. We’re now back to the beetle with the new DC Comics film “Blue Beetle,” which opens in theaters Thursday. But what distinguishes “Blue Beetle” isn’t its place in the bug brigade but the person doing the metamorphosizing.Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) is the first Latino superhero in a leading role in a DC film. It’s not just token casting, either. “Blue Beetle,” directed by Ángel Manuel Soto and written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, is firmly rooted in the experience of the Reyes clan, a close-knit Mexican-American family scraping by in the shadow of the gleaming Miami-like ...

Hearing for suspect accused of 2022 armed robbery not long after his early prison release

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:50:06 GMT

CHICAGO — A court hearing was held Wednesday for a suspect in an armed robbery last year, not long after his early release from prison.38-year-old Michael Brewer is accused of robbing a man at gunpoint as he arrived home last summer in the city's West Beverly neighborhood. Court documents reveal he is accused of pointing a gun at the victim's face, who is a man in his early 30s.Brewer was on parole at the time of the alleged crime. His criminal history dates back to the early 90s, with multiple convictions related to gun crimes, including armed robberies.Brewer was convicted and sentenced in a 2014 case of aggravated vehicular hijacking, where he was accused of carjacking a 79-year-old at gunpoint. He was sentenced to 12-years, but was released early in January 2020.In this most recent case, an indictment filed in Cook County shows Brewer is accused of stealing multiple items at gunpoint from the victim in the area of 105th Street and Maplewood.Those items include a cellphone, walle...