Washington D.C. police decline to arrest peaceful protesters. “D.C. police rejected pleas from George Washington University officials to clear pro-Palestinian demonstrators out of an on-campus encampment early Friday morning, saying they worried about the optics of moving against a small number of peaceful protesters, according to two officials familiar with the talks. Officers had assembled around 3 a.m. and were prepared to enter the encampment, but senior leaders in the police chief’s and mayor’s office ordered them to stand down, the officials said. The demonstrators were small in number and largely peaceful, and the city officials told their university counterparts they wanted to avoid images of violent altercations between police and protesters flashing across TV screens across the country.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/04/26/dc-police-george-washington-university-protests/ If the Constitution doesn’t protect protesters, at least ‘the optics’ might.
Aurora, CO paramedics sentenced over death of Elijah McClain. “Former paramedic Jeremy Cooper has been sentenced to a four-year probationary sentence Friday after being found guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the final case connected to Elijah McClain’s 2019 death. ….[Peter] Cichuniec was sentenced to five years in prison with a three-year period of parole for assault in the second-degree unlawful administration of drugs and criminally negligent homicide. ….McClain died on Aug. 30, 2019, three days after doctors pronounced him brain dead and he was removed from life support, officials said. Former police officer Randy Roedema was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and assault in the third degree in McClain’s death. He was sentenced to over one year in the county jail in January. Two other officers, Jason Rosenblatt and Woodyard, were found not guilty on charges of reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Rosenblatt was also acquitted on charges of assault in the second degree.” https://abcnews.go.com/US/final-responder-convicted-elijah-mcclains-death-sentenced/story?id=109687374
South Dakota governor and possible Trump V.P. pick Kristi Noem writes about shooting a puppy. “Noem’s book – ‘No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward’ – will be published in the US next month. The Guardian obtained a copy. Like other aspirants to be Trump’s second vice-president who have ventured into print, Noem offers readers a mixture of autobiography, policy prescriptions and political invective aimed at Democrats and other enemies, all of it raw material for speeches on the campaign stump. ….By taking Cricket on a pheasant hunt with older dogs, Noem says, she hoped to calm the young dog down…. Unfortunately, Cricket ruined the hunt, going ‘out of her mind with excitement, chasing all those birds and having the time of her life’. Noem describes calling Cricket, then using an electronic collar to attempt to bring her under control. Nothing worked. Then, on the way home after the hunt, as Noem stopped to talk to a local family, Cricket escaped Noem’s truck and attacked the family’s chickens, ‘grabb[ing] one chicken at a time, crunching it to death with one bite, then dropping it to attack another’. ….When Noem finally grabbed Cricket, she says, the dog ‘whipped around to bite me’. ….’At that moment,’ Noem [writes], ‘I realised I had to put her down.’ Noem, who also represented her state in Congress for eight years, got her gun, then led Cricket to a gravel pit. ‘It was not a pleasant job,’ she writes, ‘but it had to be done.’ ….Noem decided to kill [an] unnamed [nasty and mean] goat the same way she had just killed Cricket the dog. But though she ‘dragged him to a gravel pit’, the goat jumped as she shot and therefore survived the wound. Noem says she went back to her truck, retrieved another shell, then ‘hurried back to the gravel pit and put him down’.” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/26/trump-kristi-noem-shot-dog-and-goat-book With a shotgun? I’ll bet that was messy.
Trespassing charges dropped against University of Texas protesters. “All charges have been declined against the 57 people arrested in connection with Wednesday’s pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas. The Travis County attorney’s office said the 57 arrests, which were all criminal trespassing charges, lacked probable cause. County Attorney Delia Garza, whose office handles misdemeanor cases, told the American-Statesman on Thursday that her office agreed with defense lawyers that there were “deficiencies” with the probable cause arrest affidavits, which are the documents filled out by law enforcement to justify an arrest. ….The university said Friday that people who were arrested on criminal trespassing charges during Wednesday’s protest would be barred from campus, per an existing university policy, the Statesman reported.” https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2024/04/26/ut-austin-pro-palestinian-protest-charges-dropped-against-all-57-people-arrested/73468467007/ How exactly do you trespass at a university where you are enrolled as a student?
Arrests of Univ. of Texas protesters appear to be dubious under Texas law. “The right to protest is protected by the U.S. and Texas constitutions, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. Freedom of speech and assembly means people can engage in symbolic actions and can arrange peaceful marches and protests on certain public lands. But these rights are not without limitations. Government entities and colleges can enact ‘reasonable time, place, and manner’ restrictions or regulations as long as they are applied neutrally and don’t discriminate against particular groups or viewpoints. Some colleges have tried to limit protests to smaller, designated ‘free speech zones’, but the law has often backed up students peacefully protesting outdoors in open, public areas of campus, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. In 2019, Texas lawmakers passed a free speech law that established all common outdoor areas at public universities as traditional public forums, allowing anyone – not just students and university members – to exercise free speech there, as long as their activities are lawful and don’t disrupt the normal functions of the campus.” https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/24/protest-texas-college-campus-free-speech-rights/
An estimated 600 protesters arrested on at least 15 college campuses in a week. “University administrations have cracked down on student demonstrators in unprecedented ways as protests grow in size and intensity. The majority of arrests have occurred at encampments and sit-ins. Dozens of smaller-scale college protests haven’t seen altercations between demonstrators and police.” https://www.axios.com/2024/04/27/palestinian-college-protest-arrest-encampment Story includes interactive map.
Monroe county, NY district attorney refuses to stop during police pursuit, asks police chief to ‘tell them to leave me alone’. “An upstate New York district attorney refused to stop for cops when she was caught speeding — and instead drove back her house and called the police chief to complain about the ‘a–hole’ officer who pursued her home, bodycam footage shows. Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley admitted that she was driving 55 mph in a 35 mph zone on Monday on Phillips Road in Webster — less than half a mile from her neighborhood, WHAM reported. ‘Once I realized that the intention of the [police car] was to pull me over, I called the Webster Police Chief to inform him that I was not a threat and that I would speak to the Officer at my house down the street,’ she said in a statement. ….bodycam footage released by the Webster Police Department on Friday shows the tense exchange between Doorley and the officer in her driveway…. At one point the officer asks her why she was going so fast, [and] she responded that she ‘didn’t feel like stopping on Phillips Road at 5:30’, to which the officer responded, ‘That’s not your choice; you know that…. What do you want us to do, not do our jobs because it’s you?’ the officer then asks Doorley. She tells him to just write her the ticket, but he reminds her she refused to stop. ‘That’s not a traffic ticket; that’s an arrestable offense, Sandra.'” https://nypost.com/2024/04/26/us-news/ny-da-refuses-to-stop-for-speeding-drives-back-to-her-house-and-gives-cops-hard-time/
Interstate 40 closed after New Mexico train derailment. “The McKinley County Sheriff’s Office says a train derailed around 12:41 p.m. near the New Mexico-Arizona state line. They say about 35 rail cars are involved and are near the interstate overpass. The sheriff’s office says a few of the rail cars contained liquified petroleum gas and that firefighters are not actively attempting to put the fire out. [New Mexico State Police] shut down traffic on I-40 westbound at mile marker 16 in New Mexico and eastbound traffic in Arizona has been shut down at mile marker 333.” https://www.krqe.com/traffic-roads/i-40-near-arizona-new-mexico-border-closed-due-to-derailment/
36 protesters arrested at Ohio State University. “Law enforcement agencies, such as the Ohio State University Police Department and the Ohio State Highway Patrol, were present to control the crowd. ….’Demonstrators exercised their first amendment rights for several hours and were then instructed to disperse. Individuals who refused to leave after multiple warnings were arrested and charged with criminal trespass,’ [Ohio State University spokesperson Ben] Johnson said. State Rep. Munira Abdullahi released a statement Friday saying that she attended Thursday’s protest where she was injured. Abdullahi said she sustained bruising around her ribs and midsection after being pushed to the ground. ‘What was a calm and respectful protest was quickly escalated by police officers dressed in riot gear. They surrounded us at a moment when we were supporting students who were conducting prayer. I was grabbed by my headscarf. I was pushed toward the ground on to students,’ she said.” https://www.10tv.com/article/news/nation-world/israel-hamas-conflict/ohio-state-protest-multiple-people-arrested/530-44f1049b-20b6-4123-bef8-39f2a51cf450
Sec. of State Blinken tells China to stop helping Russia. “Chinese state-owned firms are providing key components for Russia’s defense industrial base, including microelectronics and machine tools that have ‘a material effect against Ukraine’ and constitute ‘a growing threat that Russia poses to countries in Europe’, Blinken told reporters in a press briefing in Beijing on Friday. Blinken said that, in his meetings with China’s leader Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, he made clear that the Biden administration is running out of patience with Beijing’s refusal to stop that support.” https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/26/blinken-beijing-russia-sanctions-00154556 Meanwhile, in Ukraine…. “The U.S. will provide Ukraine additional Patriot missiles for its air defense systems as part of a massive $6 billion additional aid package, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Friday. The missiles will be used to replenish previously supplied Patriot systems. The package also includes more munitions for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, or NASAMS, and additional gear to integrate Western air defense launchers, missiles and radars into Ukraine’s existing weaponry…. Friday’s meeting follows the White House decision earlier this week to approve the delivery of $1 billion in weapons and equipment to Ukraine. Those weapons include a variety of ammunition, such as air defense munitions and large amounts of artillery rounds that are much in demand by Ukrainian forces, as well as armored vehicles and other weapons. ….Since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, the U.S. has sent more than $44 billion worth of weapons, maintenance, training and spare parts to Ukraine. Among the weapons provided to Ukraine were Abrams M1A1 battle tanks.” https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-funding-war-russia-patriot-missiles-026fc8f9ee064ffb49bbee2422e2908b
Unlikely that Putin ordered Navalny killing, says intelligence community. “U.S. intelligence agencies have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin probably didn’t order opposition politician Alexei Navalny killed at an Arctic prison camp in February, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Navalny, 47 when he died, was Putin’s fiercest domestic critic. His allies, branded extremists by the authorities, accused Putin of having him murdered and have said they will provide proof to back their allegation. The Kremlin has denied any state involvement. ….The Journal, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, said on Saturday that U.S. intelligence agencies had concluded that Putin probably didn’t order Navalny to be killed in February.” https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-intelligence-believes-putin-probably-didnt-order-navalny-be-killed-wsj-2024-04-27/
Russian journalist charged with spreading ‘fake news’. “Sergei Mingazov, a journalist for the Russian edition of Forbes, has been detained on suspicion of spreading false information about the Russian army, the magazine said on Friday. Konstantin Bubon, Mingazov’s lawyer, said on Facebook that his client was in a detention centre in the far eastern city of Khabarovsk, where he lives. ….Laws passed shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 prescribe long jail sentences for people convicted of deliberately spreading false news about the armed forces. The lawyer said Mingazov was detained for reposting publications about alleged Russian war crimes in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, where killings of Ukrainian civilians in the first weeks of the war were reported by Reuters and other news organisations. The Kremlin denied its troops had executed people and said there had been a ‘monstrous forgery’.” https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russias-forbes-magazine-says-one-if-its-journalists-has-been-detained-fake-news-2024-04-26/
Republic Bank shut down, FDIC arranges take over by Fulton Bank. “Long-struggling Republic Bank failed Friday, closed by a regulator who then arranged its takeover by another firm. After shutting Republic, the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as the defunct firm’s receiver. The FDIC then reached an agreement with Lancaster-based Fulton Bank NA to buy substantially all of Republic’s assets and to assume its deposits. Republic’s collapse marked the first U.S. bank failure this year, the FDIC said in a statement. ….[The FDIC] estimated the failure would drain $667 million from a federal fund that insures bank deposits.” https://www.courierpostonline.com/story/news/local/south-jersey/2024/04/26/republic-bank-failure-fulton-bank-acquires-assets-fdic/73476765007/ Where did all that money go? Bad loans? To who?
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration releases Tesla ‘autopilot’ report. “Drivers using Autopilot or the system’s more advanced sibling, Full Self-Driving, ‘were not sufficiently engaged in the driving task’, and Tesla’s technology ‘did not adequately ensure that drivers maintained their attention on the driving task,’ NHTSA concluded. In total, NHTSA investigated 956 crashes, starting in January 2018 and extending all the way until August 2023. Of those crashes, some of which involved other vehicles striking the Tesla vehicle, 29 people died. There were also 211 crashes in which ‘the frontal plane of the Tesla struck a vehicle or obstacle in its path’. These crashes, which were often the most severe, resulted in 14 deaths and 49 injuries. ….In 59 crashes examined by NHTSA, the agency found that Tesla drivers had enough time, “five or more seconds,” prior to crashing into another object in which to react. In 19 of those crashes, the hazard was visible for 10 or more seconds before the collision. Reviewing crash logs and data provided by Tesla, NHTSA found that drivers failed to brake or steer to avoid the hazard in a majority of the crashes analyzed.” https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/26/24141361/tesla-autopilot-fsd-nhtsa-investigation-report-crash-death
Home products retailer fined $3.175 million over misleading country of origin labels. “Williams-Sonoma was charged with advertising multiple products as being ‘Made in USA’ when they were in fact manufactured in other countries, including China. That violated a 2020 commission order requiring the San Francisco-based company to be truthful about whether its products were in fact made in the U.S. The FTC said Friday that Williams-Sonoma has agreed to a settlement, which includes a $3.175 million civil penalty. That marks the largest-ever civil penalty seen in a ‘Made in USA’ case, the commission said. ….In addition to paying the penalty, the seller of cookware and home furnishings will be required to submit annual compliance reports, the FTC said.” https://apnews.com/article/williams-sonoma-fine-ftc-made-usa-10313984e90fa206d219ed0546a2b9a2
Amazon executives used Signal app to communicate. “The FTC accused Amazon executives of manually turning on the feature to delete messages in Signal even after the company learned that the FTC was investigating and had told Amazon to keep documents, emails and other messages. Many of Amazon’s senior leaders used Signal, according to the FTC, including former CEO and current chair Jeff Bezos, CEO Andy Jassy, and general counsel David Zapolsky, as well as Jeff Wilke, former head of Amazon’s worldwide consumer business, and Dave Clark, former worldwide operations chief. ….The FTC said Amazon waited for more than a year after it learned of the investigation to instruct its employees to preserve Signal messages.” https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/jassy-bezos-other-amazon-execs-used-signal-messaging-app-a-problem-for-ftc/
Progressive News Service 