U.S. News – Federal News Network https://federalnewsnetwork.com Helping feds meet their mission. Wed, 06 Jul 2022 08:41:48 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/cropped-icon-512x512-1-60x60.png U.S. News – Federal News Network https://federalnewsnetwork.com 32 32 The next frontier for drones: letting them fly out of sight https://federalnewsnetwork.com/business-news/2022/07/the-next-frontier-for-drones-letting-them-fly-out-of-sight/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/business-news/2022/07/the-next-frontier-for-drones-letting-them-fly-out-of-sight/#respond Wed, 06 Jul 2022 07:01:38 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4136732 REMINGTON, Va. (AP) — For years, there’s been a cardinal rule for flying civilian drones: Keep them within your line of sight. Not just because it’s a good idea — it’s also the law.

But some drones have recently gotten permission to soar out of their pilots’ sight. They can now inspect high-voltage power lines across the forested Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia. They’re tracking endangered sea turtles off Florida’s coast and monitoring seaports in the Netherlands and railroads from New Jersey to the rural West.

Aviation authorities in the U.S. and elsewhere are preparing to relax some of the safeguards they imposed to regulate a boom in off-the-shelf consumer drones over the past decade. Businesses want simpler rules that could open your neighborhood’s skies to new commercial applications of these low-flying machines, although privacy advocates and some airplane and balloon pilots remain wary.

For now, a small but growing group of power companies, railways and delivery services like Amazon are leading the way with special permission to fly drones “beyond visual line of sight.” As of early July, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration had approved 230 such waivers — one of them to Virginia-based Dominion Energy for inspecting its network of power plants and transmission lines.

“This is the first step of what everybody’s expecting with drones,” said Adam Lee, Dominion’s chief security officer. “The first time in our nation’s history where we’ve now moved out into what I think everyone’s expecting is coming.”

That expectation — of small drones with little human oversight delivering packages, assessing home insurance claims or buzzing around on nighttime security patrols — has driven the FAA’s work this year to craft new safety guidelines meant to further integrate drones into the national airspace.

The FAA said it is still reviewing how it will roll out routine operations enabling some drones to fly beyond visual line of sight, although it it has signaled that the permissions will be reserved for commercial applications, not hobbyists.

“Our ultimate goal is you shouldn’t need a waiver for this process at all. It becomes an accepted practice,” said Adam Bry, CEO of California drone-maker Skydio, which is supplying its drones to Dominion, railroad company BNSF and other customers with permission to fly beyond line of sight.

“The more autonomous the drones become, the more they can just be instantly available anywhere they could possibly be useful,” Bry said.

Part of that involves deciding how much to trust that drones won’t crash into people or other aircraft when their operators aren’t looking. Other new rules will require drones to carry remote identification — like an electronic license plate — to track their whereabouts. And in the aftermath of Russia’s war in Ukraine — where both sides have used small consumer drones to target attacks — the White House has been pushing a parallel effort to counter the potential malicious use of drones in the U.S.

At a gas-fired plant in Remington, Virginia, which helps power some of Washington’s suburbs, a reporter with The Associated Press watched in June as Dominion Energy drone pilots briefly lost visual line of sight of their inspection drone as it flew around the backside of a large fuel tank and the top of a smoke stack.

That wouldn’t have been legally possible without Dominion’s recently approved FAA waiver. And it wouldn’t have been technically possible without advancements in collision-avoidance technology that are enabling drones to fly closer to buildings.

Previously, “you would have to erect scaffolding or have people go in with a bucket truck,” said Nate Robie, who directs the drone program at Dominion. “Now you can go in on a 20-minute flight.”

Not everyone is enthused about the pending rules. Pilots of hot air balloons and other lightweight aircraft warn that crashes will follow if the FAA allows largely autonomous delivery drones the right of way at low altitudes.

“These drones cannot see where they are flying and are blind to us,” said a June call to action from the Balloon Federation of America.

Broader concerns come from civil liberties groups that say protecting people’s privacy should be a bigger priority.

“There is a greater chance that you’ll have drones flying over your house or your backyard as these beyond-visual-line-of-sight drone operations increase,” said Jeramie Scott, a senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center who sat on the FAA’s advisory group working to craft new drone rules. “It’ll be much harder to know who to complain to.”

EPIC and other groups dissented from the advisory group’s early recommendations and are calling for stronger privacy and transparency requirements — such as an app that could help people identify the drones above them and what data they are collecting.

“If you want to fly beyond visual line of sight, especially if you are commercial, the public has a right to know what you’re flying, what data you are collecting,” said Andrés Arrieta, director of consumer privacy engineering at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “It seems like such a low bar.”

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O’Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

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Asian benchmarks mostly lower after tepid Wall St session https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-news/2022/07/asian-benchmarks-mostly-lower-after-tepid-wall-st-session/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-news/2022/07/asian-benchmarks-mostly-lower-after-tepid-wall-st-session/#respond Wed, 06 Jul 2022 06:33:07 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4136708 TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mostly lower Wednesday after tepid trading on Wall Street amid worries about a global recession.

Major benchmarks fell across Asia. Oil prices recouped some lost ground. Analysts said markets were focusing on a variety of risks, including inflation, oil prices, moves by the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks on interest rates, political developments in Britain and worries over COVID-19.

But the basic mood appeared to be wait-and-see.

Wall Street had a weak opening after markets were closed Monday for the Independence Day holiday. The price of U.S. crude oil sank $8.93, eventually settling below $100 a barrel for the first time since early May.

On Wednesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil was up 42 cents at $99.92 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 97 cents to $103.74 per barrel.

Market volatility reflects growing worries among investors that economies are slowing under the weight of surging inflation and sharply higher interest rates, pressures that could tip them into recession.

“Although China has had another wave of COVID, nothing new or market-related seemed to justify the severity of the move,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management about the oil prices.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 1.1% in afternoon trading to 26,134.71. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.5% to 6,594.50. South Korea’s Kospi shed 1.9% to 2,297.02. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 2.4% to 21,333.26 while the Shanghai Composite slid 1.9% to 3,337.88.

Japan has parliamentary elections this coming weekend, but the expected outcome is for more stability. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida appears headed to victory amid a heavily divided and discredited opposition, polls show, despite the ruling party’s stumbling over curbing coronavirus infections, the economy and various scandals.

Stock indexes ended with meager gains on Wall Street with a late-afternoon rally led by technology companies.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2% to 3,831.39. The Nasdaq climbed 1.7% to 3,831.39. The Dow Jones Industrial Average remained in the red, losing 0.4% to 30,967.82. Small-company stocks bounced back after a downbeat start. The Russell 2000 gained 0.8% to 1,741.33.

In Britain, the FTSE 100 dropped 2.9% after two of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s most senior Cabinet ministers quit, saying they had lost confidence in Johnson’s leadership amid shifting explanations about his handling of a sexual misconduct scandal

Energy, industrials, health care and most of the 11 sectors in the S&P 500 ended in the red, despite the late rally in technology stocks, communication firms and retailers and other companies that rely on direct consumer spending.

Stocks have not bounced back from a slump that pulled the S&P 500 into a bear market last month, meaning an extended decline of 20% or more from a recent peak. The market’s performance in the first half of 2022 was the worst since the first six months of 1970.

Inflation has been squeezing businesses and consumers, tightening its grip after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. The invasion sent oil prices higher globally and sent gasoline prices in the U.S. to record highs. Consumers struggling with higher prices on everything from food to clothing are cutting back on spending.

Lockdowns in China from rising COVID-19 cases have also made supply chain problems worse.

Wall Street has been closely watching the latest economic updates for more clues on how inflation is impacting the economy and whether that could shift the Fed’s position on rate hikes. Wall Street will get a closer look at the employment market on Friday when the the government releases employment data for June.

Investors are also looking ahead to the next round of corporate earnings. Several big companies recently warned that their financial results are being squeezed by inflation, including spice and seasonings maker McCormick.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar edged down to 135.12 Japanese yen from 135.84 yen. The euro cost $1.0260, inching down from $1.0266.

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Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

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Appeals arguments set on immigrants brought to US as kids https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-news/2022/07/appeals-arguments-set-on-immigrants-brought-to-us-as-kids/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-news/2022/07/appeals-arguments-set-on-immigrants-brought-to-us-as-kids/#respond Wed, 06 Jul 2022 05:06:46 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4136620 NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Immigrant advocates head to a federal appeals court in New Orleans on Wednesday in hopes of saving an Obama-era program that prevents the deportation of thousands of people brought into the U.S. as children.

A federal judge in Texas last year declared the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program illegal — although he agreed to leave the program intact for those already benefitting from it while his order is appealed.

DACA proponents planned an early morning vigil ahead of arguments at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The U.S. Justice Department is defending the program, allied with the state of New Jersey, advocacy organizations such as the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund and a coalition of dozens of powerful corporations — including Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft — which argue that DACA recipients are “employees, consumers and job creators.”

Texas, the lead plaintiff with eight other Republican-leaning states, argues that DACA was enacted without going through proper legal and administrative procedures, including public notice and comment periods. Additionally, the states argue that they are harmed financially by allowing immigrants to remain in the country illegally.

“DACA imposes classic pocketbook injuries on the States through social services, healthcare, and education costs,” Texas attorneys argued in a brief, estimating that the state spends tens of millions of dollars on Medicaid services on those in the country illegally.

DACA proponents argue the state hasn’t proven that ending the program would decrease its costs. They argue that DACA is a policy that falls within federal authorities’ power to decide how best to spend finite enforcement resources and that Texas diminished its claims of financial injury by waiting six years to challenge the program. They also argue the state ignores evidence that DACA recipients decrease Texas’ costs because many of them hold jobs with health insurance benefits and many own homes and pay property taxes that support schools.

“Texas and the other states cannot point to an injury that is traceable to DACA,” MALDEF attorney Nina Perales said in a news conference last week. “Without injury, there’s no jurisdiction for the federal courts to hear this case.”

The damage to DACA recipients would be grave, immigrant advocates argued in one brief, exposing them to removal from the only country many of them have known and disrupting the lives of established families.

“Collectively, they are parents of over a quarter-million U.S. citizens, and 70% of DACA recipients have an immediate family member who is a U.S. citizen,” advocates stated in one brief.

DACA has faced numerous court challenges since then-President Barack Obama created it by executive order in 2012. Former President Donald Trump moved to end the program. But a U.S. Supreme Court decision determined that he had not done it properly, bringing it back to life and allowing for new applications. That was followed by the Texas-led lawsuit.

Assigned to hear arguments at the 5th Circuit were Chief Judge Priscilla Richman, an appointee of President George W. Bush; and two Trump appointees, judges James Ho and Kurt Engelhardt.

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New evacuations for communities near California forest fire https://federalnewsnetwork.com/u-s-news/2022/07/california-forest-fire-temporarily-strands-july-4th-revelers/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/u-s-news/2022/07/california-forest-fire-temporarily-strands-july-4th-revelers/#respond Wed, 06 Jul 2022 04:58:35 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4135226 JACKSON, Calif. (AP) — Evacuation orders were expanded Tuesday for remote California communities near a wildfire that may have been sparked by fireworks or a barbecue on the Fourth of July in a mountainous region that’s a top tourism destination.

The Electra Fire in Sierra Nevada Gold Country broke out Monday afternoon and tripled in size to about 6.1 square miles (15.8 square kilometers). It was 5% contained Tuesday night.

The fire was making short, uphill runs, fire officials said.

“The rate of spread isn’t what it was like yesterday, but it is still spreading,” said Amador County Sheriff Gary Redman. He said firefighters were working to keep flames confined to unpopulated canyon areas.

Mandatory evacuation orders and warnings combined affected up to 700 residents in Amador County and 300 to 400 people in Calaveras County, Redman said. Evacuation centers were set up for people and animals.

The fire started at a recreation area that was packed with people, forcing 85 to 100 celebrating the holiday at a river to take shelter at a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. facility, Redman said. All were later safely evacuated.

“This was the closest I’ve ever been to a fire. It was literally within feet of us,” said Milka Mikula of Valley Springs, who had gone to the river with her husband, her 5-year-old daughter and her 1-year-old son.

They had to wait about six hours before they could finally start for home, she told KCRA-TV.

“I just wanted to get home. I just wanted to get out of there with my babies. I was shaking really, really bad for quite some time,” Mikula said.

Redman said the cause of the fire was not known, but that it started in the Vox Beach area of the North Fork Mokelumne River. He said that could suggest fireworks or a barbecue as a potential cause.

More than 100 fire engines, 1,200 firefighters and 14 helicopters were sent to the fire, which was a threat to power infrastructure, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. The terrain was described as steep and rugged.

Cal Fire activated an incident management team for the fire. The teams “are made up of trained personnel who provide operational management and support to large-scale, expanding incidents,” Cal Fire said.

One firefighter from the local fire protection district suffered burn injuries, Redman said.

Vox Beach is about 55 miles (89 kilometers) east of Sacramento in the heart of the Sierra Nevada region that is steeped with the history of the mid-1800s Gold Rush.

Several other small fires were burning in the state.

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Asian benchmarks mostly lower after tepid Wall St session https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-news/2022/07/global-shares-mixed-as-inflation-energy-weigh-on-growth/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-news/2022/07/global-shares-mixed-as-inflation-energy-weigh-on-growth/#respond Wed, 06 Jul 2022 04:29:01 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4134893 TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mostly lower Wednesday after tepid trading on Wall Street amid worries about a global recession.

Major benchmarks fell across Asia. Oil prices recouped some lost ground after plunging on Monday. Analysts said markets were focusing on a variety of risks, including inflation, oil prices, moves by the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks on interest rates, political developments in Britain and worries over COVID-19.

But the basic mood appeared to be wait-and-see.

Wall Street had a weak opening after markets were closed Monday for the Independence Day holiday. The price of U.S. crude oil sank $8.93, eventually settling below $100 a barrel for the first time since early May.

Early Wednesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil was up 60 cents at $100.10 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained $1.24 to $104.01 per barrel.

Market volatility reflects growing worries among investors that economies are slowing under the weight of surging inflation and sharply higher interest rates, pressures that could tip them into recession.

“Although China has had another wave of COVID, nothing new or market-related seemed to justify the severity of the move,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management about the oil prices.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 1.3% in morning trading to 26,078.66. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.6% to 6,592.80. South Korea’s Kospi shed nearly 1% to 2,318.56. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.4% to 21,543.39 while the Shanghai Composite slid 1.3% to 3,358.53.

Japan has parliamentary elections this coming weekend, but the expected outcome is for more stability. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida appears headed to victory amid a heavily divided and discredited opposition, polls show, despite the ruling party’s stumbling over curbing coronavirus infections, the economy and various scandals.

Stock indexes ended with meager gains on Wall Street with a late-afternoon rally led by technology companies.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2% to 3,831.39. The Nasdaq climbed 1.7% to 3,831.39. The Dow Jones Industrial Average remained in the red, losing 0.4% to 30,967.82. Small-company stocks bounced back after a downbeat start. The Russell 2000 gained 0.8% to 1,741.33.

In Britain, the FTSE 100 dropped 2.9% after two of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s most senior Cabinet ministers quit, saying they had lost confidence in Johnson’s leadership amid shifting explanations about his handling of a sexual misconduct scandal

Energy, industrials, health care and most of the 11 sectors in the S&P 500 ended in the red, despite the late rally in technology stocks, communication firms and retailers and other companies that rely on direct consumer spending.

“The market is really taking the growth slowdown as the primary driver today,” said Paul Kim, CEO of Simplified Asset Management. “So you’re seeing a modest sell-off in risk assets, but a significant sell-off in oil, energy, commodities tied to growth, as well as a a modest drop in yields.”

Stocks remain in a slump that pulled the S&P 500 into a bear market last month, meaning an extended decline of 20% or more from a recent peak. The market’s performance in the first half of 2022 was the worst since the first six months of 1970.

Inflation has been squeezing businesses and consumers, tightening its grip after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. The invasion sent oil prices higher globally and sent gasoline prices in the U.S. to record highs. Consumers struggling with higher prices on everything from food to clothing are cutting back on spending.

Lockdowns in China from rising COVID-19 cases have also made supply chain problems worse.

Wall Street has been closely watching the latest economic updates for more clues on how inflation is impacting the economy and whether that could shift the Fed’s position on rate hikes. Wall Street will get a closer look at the employment market on Friday when the the government releases employment data for June.

Investors are also looking ahead to the next round of corporate earnings. Several big companies recently warned that their financial results are being squeezed by inflation, including spice and seasonings maker McCormick.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar edged down to 135.22 Japanese yen from 135.84 yen. The euro cost $1.0259, inching down from $1.0266.

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AP Business Writers Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga contributed.

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Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

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Gun violence in America: A long list of forgotten victims https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-news/2022/07/gun-violence-in-america-a-long-list-of-forgotten-victims-2/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-news/2022/07/gun-violence-in-america-a-long-list-of-forgotten-victims-2/#respond Wed, 06 Jul 2022 04:02:00 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4136495 ATHENS, Ala. (AP) — Amid the stream of mass shootings that have become chillingly commonplace in America, the reality of the nation’s staggering murder rate can often be seen more clearly in the deaths that never make national news.

Take this weekend in Chicago. On Monday, a rooftop shooter opened fire into crowds gathered for an Independence Day parade in a Chicago suburb, killing at least seven people and wounding some 30.

Less talked about, Chicago Police say 68 people were shot in the city between Friday at 6 p.m. and just before midnight on Monday. Eight of them died.

Most gun violence in America is related to seemingly ordinary disputes that spin out of control and someone goes for a gun. Often, the victim and the shooter know one another. They are co-workers and acquaintances, siblings and neighbors. They are killed in farming villages, small towns and crowded cities.

They are people like David Guess, a 51-year-old small-town father of four who had struggled with addiction and who police say was shot by an acquaintance and dumped in an Alabama forest near a place called Chicken Foot Mountain.

His killing drew little attention outside the rural stretch of northern Alabama where Guess grew up and later worked as a mechanic and truck driver. But his death shattered many lives.

“It’s been absolutely devastating” to the Guess family, said his brother, Daniel Guess. Their 72-year-old father, Larry, now rarely leaves his home and often doesn’t get out of bed.

Daniel didn’t just lose his brother in the shooting.

“I’ve lost my dad. too,” he said. “It is killing my dad.”

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Compared to much of the developed world, America is a murderous country. The United Nations estimates the U.S. homicide rate is three times that of Canada, five of France, 26 of Japan. According to some studies, there are more guns in America today than there are people.

But if Americans often see the country’s streets as ever more dangerous scenes of public mass killings, the reality is more complicated.

While mass murders soak up the vast majority of the attention, more than half of America’s roughly 45,000 annual firearm deaths are from suicide. Mass shootings — defined as the deaths of four or more people, not including the shooter — have killed from 85 to 175 people each year over the past decade.

Plus, while America’s gun killings spiked wildly in 2020, recent statistics indicate they are coming down this year in many cities.

Further complicating things: The data on firearm killings is woefully incomplete, with just over 60% of the country’s law enforcement agencies reporting crime statistics to the FBI’s national database.

“Our lack of shooting data is devastating for understanding gun violence trends,” said Jeff Asher, a data analyst and co-founder of the firm AH Datalytics, which creates its own crime database to try to get around some of those shortcomings. “This is a government issue, but citizens are forced to develop workarounds” to create a clearer picture of what is happening.

While the FBI collects nationwide crime data, participation is voluntary on the federal level and thousands of law enforcement agencies send nothing or partial information. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does a careful count of homicides, but its data on each death is limited.

So when politicians debate whether AR-15-style rifles lead to more killings, or if extended magazines that carry more bullets lead to more deaths, no one is really sure. CDC statistics for 2020, for example, shows that authorities know what kind of weapon was used in just 24% of firearm deaths. Both sides on the gun control debate, meanwhile, can frame what facts there are to suit their purposes.

___

Across America, people are afraid.

Nearly a third said they can’t go anywhere without worrying about being the victim of a mass shooting, according to 2019 survey by the American Psychological Association. Nearly a quarter said they have changed how they live to avoid mass shootings, sometimes avoiding public events, malls and movie theaters.

But are they afraid of the wrong things?

“The coverage has given people the impression that things are different today, that we’ve never really experienced these (mass killings) before. But we have. It’s more common now, but it’s still extremely, extremely rare,” given the size of the U.S. population, said James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University who has been tracking mass killings since 2006 along with The Associated Press and USA Today.

Hyperventilating news coverage has contributed to the fear, he believes, with overwhelming, live coverage of mass shootings and reports that conflate mass shootings — where multiple people are injured — with mass killings. Just 5% of mass shootings end with four or more people dead, he said, “and only a quarter of those are in schools, churches and public places like that.”

Fox doesn’t downplay the horror of mass killings or the pain they inflict on victims, families and communities. But he worries that America’s reactions — active shooter drills, for instance, and bunker-like schools — produce outsized fears and misspent resources.

They also give people the wrong impression of how Americans are dying. Most homicides, he says, are one person killing another.

And one sure thing: You’ve never heard of most of those shooting victims.

They are people like Oneil Anderson, owner of the Love Cuts barbershop in Miami Gardens, Florida, who police say was killed in front of his shop in March, reportedly by a former customer. There’s Leslie Bailor, whose husband allegedly shot her repeatedly inside their central Pennsylvania home in April and then called police. She was dead when they arrived. There’s 18-year-old Jailyn Logan-Bledso, who was shot and killed two weeks ago at a gas station just outside Chicago by two men who stole her car and disappeared.

On June 26, Atlanta police say Brittany Macon, a 26-year-old employee at a Subway sandwich shop was shot and killed when a customer grew irate and opened fire. He also injured another employee. The customer, police said, was angry about having too much mayonnaise on his sandwich.

Homicides are often associated with big cities like Chicago, where police say the majority of killings have some tie to gang rivalries, which in recent years often fester on social media before spilling into the streets. But while Chicago’s homicide rate is high, with nearly 800 killings in the city of 2.7 million last year, its rate per capita is lower than many smaller cities.

Gun deaths are far from just a big city phenomenon. Nearly 30% of all gun deaths in 2020 were in smaller cities and rural parts of the country, according to the CDC. Half were in large cities and their suburbs, with around 20 percent in medium-sized cities and counties.

Lawrence County, Alabama, where Guess was killed, had two other killings that same week in March. That’s more than are killed in an average year in the county of 33,000, Sheriff Max Sanders told reporters in March.

Sanders couldn’t explain the surge in homicides. In one, a husband allegedly shot his wife during an argument and then took his own life. In the other, a son is accused of beating his mother to death with an ashtray and other objects from around the house because she got rid of his dog and refused to take him to see his girlfriend.

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David Guess’ death began with an argument over a car part.

Guess had struggled with addiction but had been clean for more than a month before his death, his brother Daniel said. He had adopted three of his four children and once contemplated becoming a preacher. In recent weeks, he lived in a camper parked next to his father’s trailer home.

He would, his brother said, “give you the shirt off his back.”

On March 5, court documents say David Guess drove down a dusty county road near the town of Hillsboro to the home of a man he knew. Late that night, another man, Charles Allan Keel, arrived. He insisted Guess owed him $1,500 for a catalytic converter, which have become valuable as scrap metal because of pricey metals inside them.

Keel, 43, along with his 17-year-old son and other men beat Guess, and someone hit him in the head with a pipe, police say. As Guess tried to escape, police say Keel shot him with a handgun. Five people were charged, but only Keel faces a murder charge.

Two days later, a delivery truck driver found David Guess’ remains near the forest road, two miles from where he’d been killed. Rings of charred black rubber marked where police say Keel and several accomplices had piled tires on top of the body and set it on fire.

Tears well in Larry Guess’ eyes as he sits at his battered wooden dining table and recalls the phone call David made to him around midnight on March 5. David implored his father to bring him $1,500 right away.

“If you don’t, he’s going to kill me,” David said. Larry responded that he couldn’t get that much money that quickly.

The last words he ever heard from his son before the line went dead were of David Guess imploring someone nearby: “Don’t hit me with that pipe again.”

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Wisconsin court to rule on immunity in sex trafficking case https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-news/2022/07/wisconsin-court-to-rule-on-immunity-in-sex-trafficking-case/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-news/2022/07/wisconsin-court-to-rule-on-immunity-in-sex-trafficking-case/#respond Wed, 06 Jul 2022 02:50:16 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4136410 MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s Supreme Court is set to decide Wednesday whether a sex trafficking victim accused of homicide can argue at trial that she was justified in killing the man who trafficked her, a ruling that could help define the extent of immunity for trafficking victims nationwide.

Prosecutors say Chrystul Kizer traveled to Randall Volar’s home in Kenosha in June 2018. She shot him in the head, burned down the house and stole his BMW, according to court documents. She was 17 at the time. She faces multiple charges, including arson and first-degree intentional homicide. That count carries a mandatory life sentence.

Kizer, now 22, contends she met Volar on a sex-trafficking website. She says he sexually assaulted her and sold her to others for sex. She told detectives she shot him after he tried to touch her, according to the criminal complaint.

Her attorneys have argued that she’s immune from prosecution under a 2008 state law that absolves sex trafficking victims of any offenses resulting from being trafficked. Nearly 40 states have passed laws that give trafficking victims at least some level of criminal immunity, according to Legal Action of Wisconsin, which provides legal help for low-income people.

They had planned to invoke the immunity law at trial but Kenosha County Circuit Judge David Wilk refused to allow the argument. He ruled that immunity extends only to trafficking-related charges such as restraining someone, extortion, prostitution or slave labor. An appellate court ruled last year, however, that Kizer could argue that the law shields her from prosecution.

State attorneys asked the Supreme Court to reverse that decision, maintaining that the immunity statutes can’t possibly extend to homicide. Assistant Attorney General Timothy Barber said during oral arguments in March that Kizer’s interpretation would create an unprecedented expansion of the self-defense doctrine, eliminating any questions about whether killing someone was reasonable or necessary.

Kizer’s attorney, Katie York, told the justices that the law clearly states trafficking victims enjoy immunity from any offense. A jury should be allowed to consider whether the shooting was so closely connected to trafficking that immunity applies, she said.

The court’s ruling won’t decide Kizer’s guilt or innocence. And the decision on whether she can argue immunity won’t be binding on other states, but it could inform attorney strategies in similar cases. Anti-violence groups have lined up to support Kizer, arguing in briefs to the Supreme Court that trafficking victims often feel trapped and believe they have to take matters into their own hands.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are sexual assault victims but Kizer discussed her case in an interview from jail with The Washington Post that was published in 2019.

___

Follow Todd Richmond on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trichmond1

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Deadly July 4 parade: Shots, then a frantic rush to escape https://federalnewsnetwork.com/u-s-news/2022/07/deadly-july-4-parade-shots-then-a-frantic-rush-to-escape/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/u-s-news/2022/07/deadly-july-4-parade-shots-then-a-frantic-rush-to-escape/#respond Wed, 06 Jul 2022 02:27:34 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4136106 HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (AP) — David Shapiro and his wife brought their two young kids to enjoy the Independence Day parade in their hometown north of Chicago, snagging a spot in front of a boutique winery.

The children’s parade in downtown Highland Park had already gone by, with about 50 school-age children riding bikes, scooters and tricycles. The musicians of the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band, complete with full drum set and brass section, were starting to play atop a flatbed trailer.

Then came the sound that Shapiro knew did not fit: pop pop pop pop pop.

Before he knew what was happening, parade-goers from farther down the route began running toward the 47-year-old and his family, screaming about someone with a gun.

“It was chaos,” Shapiro recalled. “People didn’t know right away where the gunfire was coming from, whether the gunman was in front or behind you chasing you.”

For many people, the mass shooting that killed at least seven people and injured more than 30 others adds to the fear that any place, any event in the U.S. can turn dangerous or deadly, even though most gun violence is personal. Highland Park is one of the country’s safest towns, and July 4th parades among the most American of celebrations. Even before Monday’s killings, some people already were on edge, questioning whether to venture into large gatherings, looking over their shoulders during even the most run-of-the-mill activities, from grocery shopping to going to school or catching a movie.

But as the shots rang out in Highland Park on Monday, all most people at the July 4 parade knew at first was confusion, then terror as they searched for a safe place to hide or any way to escape.

___

The atmosphere along the short but crowded parade route was exuberant as the kids stepped along around 9:40 a.m., said Vivian Visconti, a 19-year-old Highland Park Park District counselor who helped organize and direct the children’s parade

Parents and other attendees smiled and waved at that first group, while Visconti instructed younger kids to keep moving if they slowed or momentarily veered off the designated route.

“It was fun, cheerful, and hot,” she recalled about passing through Central Avenue business district, lined with tony boutiques, cafes and restaurants. On either side of the street, attendees sat on blankets and lawn tables, some snacking on potato chips or cookies as they watched.

It took the children on the cycles no more than 20 minutes to traverse the entire parade route, which ended at the bottom of a hill near a park, where a bouncy house was set up for youngsters to play in after they completed the trek.

“We may have been one of the only groups who finished the parade route,” Visconti said.

One of the reasons the smaller kids went first was so they could run back up the hill and watch the rest of the parade.

Visconti, too, made her way back up the hill, to the other end of Central Avenue, near the Shapiro family. It was around 10:20 a.m. when she heard several slower booming sounds followed immediately by a rapid secession of what seemed 20 loud pops, she said.

“I thought it was blanks, part of the parade at first,” she said. “But my friend turned to me and told me, ‘No, it’s real!’”

After a pause of around five seconds, she heard another rapid series of shots. She and her friend ran.

Like most others who heard shots, they never saw the shooter, who had climbed a fire escape to perch atop a row of specialty stores. As he fired, some parade-goers fell, mortally wounded. Many others lay bleeding or were carried away by family and friends.

Not far from Visconti, 16-year-old Yonatan Garfinkle, of Highland Park, understood he had to get away fast.

A friend’s dad happened to be passing by in his Jeep. Fifteen other people were already in the vehicle or holding onto it. He jumped on its side, too, hugging it tightly as the vehicle sped away from the city center.

___

Staging for the parade was on St. John’s Avenue, near a parking garage and train station. Floats, bands and politicians headed north a bit, then turned west down Central.

Greg Gilberg, 45, was on a float with his wife just minutes from making the turn when he saw crowds of frightened parade goers bolt from the avenue. The Highland Park man didn’t hear any shots clearly, but he knew they needed to flee. So he and his wife hurried to where he had left his bike nearby; she jumped on the back with him and Gilberg pedaled as fast as he could home.

As he passed the Highland Park library, Gilberg said, he saw dozens of people streaming inside for safety.

The sound of the shots was much louder on Central Avenue — the parade’s main thoroughfare — where Richard Isenberg and his wife were watching the parade near a shop that sells outdoor gear. Though they could not see who was firing or where they were, Isenberg could tell from the sound that the shooter was close.

The couple fled, turning around a corner and into a lot full of large dumpsters. They saw a man lift his children into one of the dumpsters. He asked the Isenbergs to keep an eye on them as he ran back to the street for other relatives who had come to the parade with him.

The couple returned to the scene Tuesday to try to retrieve their car, which was still in an area cordoned-off by police investigating the crime. Recalling the thunderous sound of gunfire, Isenberg’s wife, who declined to share her name, covered her ears and closed her eyes.

“I can’t stop hearing it,” she said.

Amid the mayhem, the shooter, dressed as a woman, slipped into the panicked crowds and, for the moment, got away.

___

For Howard Diamond, 45, of Highland Park, attending the Independence Parade each year was a family tradition.

He was sitting in a lawn chair with his wife, 9-year-old son and other members of his extended family when he heard loud bangs about 500 feet away. Someone said it was fireworks. But he said he knew better, telling everyone they were shots and they needed to move now.

“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” he recalled yelling.

Speaking Tuesday from outside a police cordon on Central Avenue, he pointed to a child’s blue miniature car, toppled over amid the pandemonium the day before, saying it belonged to his sister-in-law’s son. He had hoped to retrieve his cellphone, but was told he couldn’t because it was still a crime scene.

___

The Shapiro family wasn’t sure of the best escape route, so they decided to run all the way to their nearby home. Shapiro grabbed his daughter in his arms and they sprinted away as fast as they could, leaving behind their children’s stroller and lawn chairs as they fled. Later that night, his 4-year-old son woke up screaming, Shapiro said as he returned to downtown Tuesday to pick up the items the family abandoned.

“He is too young to understand what happened. But he knows something bad happened,” he said. “That’s chilling.”

___

Burnett reported from Chicago. Associated Press reporter Martha Irvine contributed.

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This story has been corrected to show Shapiro’s son was 4.

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West Coast dockworkers still talking after contract expires https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-news/2022/07/west-coast-dockworkers-still-talking-after-contract-expires/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-news/2022/07/west-coast-dockworkers-still-talking-after-contract-expires/#respond Wed, 06 Jul 2022 01:44:39 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4136308 LOS ANGELES (AP) — A contract between shipping companies and 22,000 West Coast dockworkers expired over the weekend. But both sides continued to talk and said they want to avoid a strike that could savage an economy already stressed by soaring inflation and supply chain woes.

The contract that expired last Friday covered workers at ports from California to Washington state that handle nearly 40% of U.S. imports.

“While there will be no contract extension, cargo will keep moving, and normal operations will continue at the ports until an agreement can be reached,” said a joint statement from the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

The ILWU is the union representing Pacific dockworkers, and the Pacific Maritime Association is a trade group for cargo carriers and terminal operators. Its members include such global shipping giants as Maersk and Evergreen Marine.

The talks are so crucial that President Joe Biden even stepped in last month and met with both sides in Los Angeles. They are taking place against the backdrop of surging imports that left backlogs of ships anchored offshore, and declining exports.

Both sides said last month that they weren’t planning any work disruptions, but U.S. industries are clearly worried.

In a letter to Biden issued hours before the latest contract expired, about 150 trade groups ranging from truckers to agricultural, chemical and toy industries urged the administration to work with both parties to extend the current contract, negotiate in good faith and agree to avoid actions that further disrupt the ports.

The letter stressed that the groups are entering their peak season for imports as retailers stockpile goods for the fall holidays and back-to-school items.

“We continue to expect cargo flows to remain at all-time highs, putting further stress on the supply chain and increasing inflation,” the letter said. “Many expect these challenges to continue through the rest of the year.”

A major issue in the talks is automation of port facilities. The union argues that it will cost the jobs of crane operators and other workers, who can earn $100,000 or more per year. The Pacific Maritime Association argues that automation will actually will increase employment by enabling ports to move more cargo.

Ports already have been struggling to handle container traffic, much of it from Asia, where ports are heavily automated.

After the COVID-19 pandemic began to take hold in 2020, cargo traffic to ports slumped drastically. But then it recovered and has been booming since. Soaring demand has led to traffic jams at the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which in 2021 alone moved some 20 million cargo containers. The ports, collectively known as the San Pedro Bay port complex, alone handle more than 30% of waterborne containerized imports and exports in the U.S.

In January, some 100 ships were waiting to get into the port complex, but that total is now down to 60 or even as low as 20 at times, Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero said Tuesday.

Cargo is loaded and unloaded 16 hours a day, on average, Cordero said. However, the ports need to have a “24-7 mindset” to deal with Asian traffic, where ports operate around the clock, he said.

Contracts are renegotiated every six years, and Cordero said most have concluded without disruptions.

However, a lockout in 2002 and an eight-day strike in 2015 cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars and forced the administrations of then-presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama to intervene.

Cordero said he hadn’t seen any work slowdowns at the port and was optimistic that the current negotiations would end with a fairly quick resolution.

“The world’s looking at us to make sure that were moving the cargo,” he said. “I think the administration has made it clear that they expect a reasonable … outcome.”

Unionized dockworkers also are seeking a raise and argue that shipping lines can afford it. With global demand, overseas freight shipping firms are seeing record profits.

Last month, Biden signed the Ocean Shipping Reform Act — meant to make shipping goods across oceans cheaper — and blasted the concentration of corporate shipping in the hands of nine foreign-owned companies.

“These carriers made $190 billion in profit in 2021, seven times higher than the year before,” Biden said. “The cost got passed on, as you might guess, directly to consumers, sticking it to American families and businesses because they could.”

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Parents of boy, 2, found alone at parade shooting among dead https://federalnewsnetwork.com/world-news/2022/07/synagogue-member-father-among-the-dead-in-parade-shooting/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/world-news/2022/07/synagogue-member-father-among-the-dead-in-parade-shooting/#respond Wed, 06 Jul 2022 01:37:23 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4135926 Aiden McCarthy’s photo was shared across Chicago-area social media groups in the hours after the July 4 parade shooting in Highland Park, accompanied by pleas to help identify the 2-year-old who had been found at the scene bloodied and alone and to reunite him with his family.

On Tuesday, friends and authorities confirmed that the boy’s parents, Kevin McCarthy, 37, and Irina McCarthy, 35, were among seven people killed in the tragedy.

“At two years old, Aiden is left in the unthinkable position; to grow up without his parents,” wrote Irina Colon on a GoFundMe account she created for the family and Aiden, who was reunited with his grandparents Monday evening.

Friends of the McCarthys said Irina’s parents would care for the boy going forward.

Four of other others who were killed were identified Tuesday as Katherine Goldstein, 64; Jacquelyn Sundheim, 63; Stephen Straus, 88; and Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78. Every victim was from Highland Park except for Toledo-Zaragoza, who was visiting family in the city from Morelos, Mexico.

Officials haven’t yet identified the seventh victim.

Portraits of some of those who died began to emerge Tuesday as investigators continued to search for evidence in the shooting that killed at least seven and wounded 30.

Irina McCarthy’s childhood friend, Angela Vella, described McCarthy as fun, personable and “somewhat of a tomboy” who still liked to dress up nicely.

“She definitely had her own style, which I always admired,” Vella said in a short interview.

Straus, a Chicago financial adviser, was one of the first observers at the parade and attended it every year, his grandchildren said.

Brothers Maxwell and Tobias Straus described their grandfather as a kind and active man who loved walking, biking and attending community events.

“The way he lived life, you’d think he was still middle-aged,” Maxwell Straus said in an interview.

The two brothers recalled Sunday night dinners with their grandparents as a favorite tradition. They said they ate with him the night before he was killed.

“America’s gun culture is killing grandparents,” said Maxwell Straus. “It’s very just terrible.”

Sundheim, meanwhile, was regaled as a lifelong congregant and “beloved” staff member at North Shore Congregation Israel, where she had worked for decades, the Reform synagogue said on its website. Sundheim taught at the synagogue’s preschool and coordinated events including bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies.

“Jacki’s work, kindness and warmth touched us all,” synagogue leaders wrote in a message on their website. “There are no words sufficient to express the depth of our grief for Jacki’s death and sympathy for her family and loved ones.”

Toledo-Zaragoza was killed on what his 23-year-old granddaughter, Xochil Toledo, said was supposed to be a “fun family day” that “turned into a horrific nightmare for us all.”

On a GoFundMe page to raise money for Toledo’s funeral expenses, Xochil Toledo said her grandfather was a “loving man, creative, adventurous and funny.”

“As a family we are broken, numb,” she said.

Toledo-Zaragoza had come to Illinois to visit his family about two months ago, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. His family wanted him to stay permanently because of injuries he had suffered after being hit by a car a couple years ago during an earlier visit to Highland Park. The newspaper reported that he was hit by three bullets Monday and died at the scene.

He wasn’t sure he wanted to attend the parade because of the large crowds and his limited mobility, which required him to use a walker, but Xochil Toledo said the family didn’t want to leave him alone.

Katherine Goldstein’s husband described her as an easygoing travel companion who was always game to visit far-flung locales.

“She didn’t complain,” Craig Goldstein told The New York Times. “She was always along for the ride.”

Goldstein was a mother of two daughters in their early 20s, Cassie and Alana. She attended the parade with her older daughter so that Cassie could reunite with friends from high school, Craig Goldstein, a hospital physician, told the newspaper.

Dr. Goldstein said his wife had recently lost her mother and had given thought to what kind of arrangements she might want when she dies.

He recalled that Katherine, an avid bird watcher, said she wanted to be cremated and to have her remains scattered in the Montrose Beach area of Chicago, where there is a bird sanctuary.

___

Schulte reported from Omaha, Nebraska. Savage reported from Chicago. Venhuizen reported from Madison, Wisconsin. Associated Press reporter Christopher Weber contributed from Los Angeles.

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Bradford Freeman, last “Band of Brothers” survivor has died https://federalnewsnetwork.com/u-s-news/2022/07/bradford-freeman-last-band-of-brothers-survivor-has-died/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/u-s-news/2022/07/bradford-freeman-last-band-of-brothers-survivor-has-died/#respond Wed, 06 Jul 2022 00:57:36 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4136292 CALEDONIA, Miss. (AP) — Bradford Freeman, the last survivor of the famed Army unit featured in the World War II oral history book and miniseries “Band of Brothers” has died at the age of 97.

Freeman died Sunday at Baptist Memorial Hospital–Golden Triangle, according to Lowndes Funeral Home in Columbus, Mississippi.

Freeman was born in Artesia, Mississippi, and a graveside funeral service will be held Friday in Caledonia, Mississippi, where he lived, according to the obituary.

Freeman was an 18-year-old student at Mississippi State when he enlisted to fight in World War II. He volunteered to become a paratrooper and became a mortarman in Company E, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.

He parachuted into Normandy on D-Day, fought in Operation Market-Garden, and was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge, later participating in the occupations of Berchtesgaden, Germany, and Austria.

“After the war, he returned to Caledonia and married Willie Louise Gurley on June 29, 1947, and worked as a mail carrier for 32 years,” the obituary said.

University of New Orleans historian Stephen E. Ambrose’s “Band of Brothers,” about “Easy Company” and its members, was a best-seller and inspired the 2001 HBO miniseries with the same title.

The unit’s last surviving officer died last year.

Freeman is survived by a sister, two daughters, four grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

“Our dad was always astounded that a country boy from Mississippi was able to see so many places and meet so many interesting people,” the obituary said.

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Feds sue over new Arizona citizenship proof law for voting https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-news/2022/07/feds-sue-over-new-arizona-citizenship-proof-law-for-voting/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-news/2022/07/feds-sue-over-new-arizona-citizenship-proof-law-for-voting/#respond Wed, 06 Jul 2022 00:51:59 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4136288 PHOENIX (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday sued Arizona over a new law requiring people who use a federal form to register to vote to provide additional proof of citizenship if they want to vote for president or using the state’s popular vote-by-mail system.

The law signed by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey on March 30 is in direct conflict with a 1993 federal voter registration law and also violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to the Justice Department. The law adds requirements for the federal form directly rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 2013 Arizona case.

The Republican-controlled Legislature was well aware of the federal law and the Supreme Court decision written by the late conservative icon, Justice Antonin Scalia. But they went ahead anyway, arguing the new law would boost election security.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the department’s civil rights division called the new law that goes into effect in January “a textbook violation of the National Voter Registration Act.”

She said the National Voter Registration Act has helped eliminate requirements that make it hard to register to vote.

“Arizona has passed a law that turns the clock back on progress by imposing unlawful and unnecessary requirements that would block eligible voters from the registration rolls for certain federal elections,” Clarke said in a statement.

The law violates the Civil Right Act by requiring election officials to reject registration forms if they contain a mistake or leave out information that is not needed to determine someone’s right to vote, she said.

Ducey said in a March 30 signing letter that the law is designed to address a growing number of voters who registered using the federal form who did not have to provide proof that they are citizens. The state’s voters added the citizenship proof requirement in 2004 when they enacted Proposition 200, but it does not apply to the federal form.

The federal form requires a person to swear they are a citizen, but there is no proof requirement. Those who register using the form and do not respond to election officials’ request for citizenship proof are only allowed to vote in federal elections. In 2020, just over 11,600 people were federal-only voters, but the number has since risen. Since the Supreme Court decision, Arizona has allowed those using the form who have not provided citizenship proof to vote only in federal elections.

Ducey spokesman C.J. Karamargin declined to comment, saying the administration doesn’t comment on litigation. Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who is running for U.S. Senate, told the Justice Department in a July 1 letter that he would defend the law to the fullest.

The bill would prohibit federal-only voters from voting by mail or voting for president. It would require state election officials to cross check registration information with various government databases to try to prove their citizenship, and report anyone they can’t find to prosecutors.

The bill also requires people to include proof of their address with new voter registrations. Election officials say that’s complicated and unnecessary because addresses are verified at the time of voting, and voting rights advocates say it will make registering voters more difficult.

The Legislature’s own lawyers told lawmakers that much of the measure was unconstitutional, directly contradicts the 2013 Supreme Court decision and is likely to be thrown out in court. It passed with support from only majority Republicans.

Voting rights advocates worry the bill is an attempt to get back in front of the now more conservative Supreme Court.

“Election integrity means counting every lawful vote and prohibiting any attempt to illegally cast a vote,” Ducey said in a letter explaining his decision to sign the bill.

He called the bill “a balanced approach that honors Arizona’s history of making voting accessible without sacrificing security in our elections.”

Rep. Jake Hoffman developed the bill along with the conservative Heritage Foundation, and said the measure is about eliminating opportunities for fraud, though cases of noncitizens voting are extremely rare.

Hoffman and other supporters say it affects only the roughly 31,500 voters who have not shown proof of citizenship. Voting advocates say it’s vague and could go much farther, affecting hundreds of thousands of people who haven’t recently updated their voter registration or driver’s license.

The Justice Department lawsuit is the third to be filed challenging the law since it was passed. Voting rights groups filed the first two challenges, which have been merged into one case.

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Officials: Nine fatal drug overdoses in rural Florida county https://federalnewsnetwork.com/u-s-news/2022/07/officials-nine-fatal-drug-overdoses-in-rural-florida-county/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/u-s-news/2022/07/officials-nine-fatal-drug-overdoses-in-rural-florida-county/#respond Wed, 06 Jul 2022 00:40:23 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4136274 QUINCY, Fla. (AP) — Nine people died over the holiday weekend from likely drug overdoses in a rural Florida Panhandle county, officials said.

After two women were found dead of an apparent overdose Friday, the Gadsden County Sheriff’s Office put out an alert seeking the public’s help to warn others of the possibly polluted drug supply, the Tallahassee Democrat reported. Gadsden County is located northwest of Tallahassee.

Sheriff Morris A. Young said investigators believes the deaths are related to fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid used as a pain medication.

County officials said they’ve confirmed seven of the deaths, while two others remain under investigation.

No arrests were immediately announced.

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2 UN peacekeepers from Egypt were killed, 5 wounded in Mali https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-news/2022/07/2-un-peacekeepers-from-egypt-were-killed-5-wounded-in-mali/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-news/2022/07/2-un-peacekeepers-from-egypt-were-killed-5-wounded-in-mali/#respond Tue, 05 Jul 2022 23:47:13 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4135672 UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A U.N. armored vehicle hit a mine Tuesday in central Mali, killing two Egyptian peacekeepers and seriously wounding five others in another deadly incident targeting the U.N. mission in the West African nation that has faced a decade-long Islamic insurgency.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said 10 U.N. peacekeepers have died in Mali in the first six months of 2022.

In Tuesday’s incident, he said, an armored vehicle from a U.N. logistics convoy hit a mine on the route from Tessalit, the north-central oasis town in the Sahara, to the central city of Gao.

Dujarric said a U.N. rapid intervention force was sent to the scene and the injured were evacuated.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission strongly condemned the attack, which may constitute a war crime under international law.

Dujarric said the mission noted “with concern the frequent use of improvised explosive devices intended to paralyze the operations of the U.N. mission and to obstruct the return to peace and stability in Mali.”

The U.N. Security Council condemned the attack “in the strongest terms” and called on Mali’s transitional government to swiftly investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice. Its members “expressed their concern about the security situation in Mali and the transnational dimension of the terrorist threat in the Sahel region.”

Mali has been in turmoil since a 2012 uprising prompted mutinous soldiers to overthrow the president. The power vacuum that resulted ultimately led to an Islamic insurgency and a French-led war that ousted the jihadists from power in 2013.

But insurgents remain active and extremist groups affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have moved from the arid north to more populated central Mali since 2015, stoking animosity and violence between ethnic groups in the region.

Mali’s current ruling junta seized power in August 2020, and in April the junta leaders said a transition to civilian, democratic rule would take at least two years.

The U.N. mission says over 255 of its peacekeepers and personnel have died since 2013, making Mali the deadliest of the U.N.’s dozen peacekeeping missions worldwide.

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Police: Mother drowned children, then killed herself https://federalnewsnetwork.com/u-s-news/2022/07/police-mother-drowned-children-then-killed-herself/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/u-s-news/2022/07/police-mother-drowned-children-then-killed-herself/#respond Tue, 05 Jul 2022 23:09:40 +0000 https://federalnewsnetwork.com/?p=4136216 ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Three children whose bodies were found in a suburban Minneapolis lake over the holiday weekend died in drownings that were classified as homicides, and their mother died of a drowning that was suicide, authorities said Tuesday as they also identified the victims.

Searchers recovered the bodies of Molly Cheng and her three children, ages 3, 4 and 5, from Vadnais Lake on Friday and Saturday. Authorities had said earlier the deaths were being investigated as a triple murder-suicide.

The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday that Cheng called police on Friday morning and said her husband, Yee Lee, had shot himself. That afternoon one of Cheng’s relatives called police to say she planned to kill her children and herself, the department said, resulting in a welfare check that eventually tracked Cheng’s cell phone to the lake.

The Ramsey County medical examiner determined that the cause of 4-year-old Quadrillion Lee and 3-year-old Estella Zoo Siab Lee’s deaths was drowning and smothering. Five-year-old Phoenix Lee’s death was caused by drowning.

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