Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial has ended in a mistrial after jurors remained deadlocked on all counts after 52 hours of deliberation. Cosby faced three counts of aggravated indecent assault. Andrea Constand has accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her at his home in 2004. Constand is the former director of operations for the women’s basketball team at Temple University where Cosby was a trustee.
Constand is one of about 60 women who have accused Cosby of sexual assaults dating back decades. It’s the only criminal case stemming from dozens of accusations of sexual misconduct — all of which the comedian/actor denies. She says she was “paralyzed” by pills he gave her while he claimed it was just Benadryl and that the encounter was consensual.
Cosby did not take the stand, but his lawyers have maintained the physical contact was mutual and raised questions as to why Constand kept in phone contact with Cosby after the alleged incident. They also questioned why she did not report it for a year. Prosecutors declined to charge Cosby in 2004 but reopened the case after the scandal erupted two and
a half years ago.
The jurors were chosen in the Pittsburgh area and bussed in to Philadelphia for the trial. After six days of testimony, the jury of seven men and five women began deliberations. They were soon deadlocked but continued to deliberate, reviewing reams of testimony. After 52 hours of deliberations, Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill accepted a defense motion for a mistrial.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele immediately announced that he plans to retry the case and ordered that Cosby can remain free on $1 million bail he posted when he was first charged. Steele later told reporters that there “was no pause or hesitation” in deciding to retry the case and that “we had a significant amount of evidence … now we have to prove (the case) beyond a reasonable doubt.” Prosecutors will retry him on three counts of aggravated indecent assault, a charge that carries 10 years in prison.
Outside the courthouse, lawyer Gloria Allred, who represents some of the women who have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, said that “round two may be just around the corner, and this time, justice may prevail.” She commended her client Kelly Johnson, the only other accuser allowed to testify at the trial, and thanked all the accusers who have spoken out. Several of Cosby’s accusers have been attending the trial.
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The gunman who killed three men at a UPS facility in San Francisco and then killed himself has been identified as 38-year-old Jimmy Lam. The victims were Wayne Chan, 56, and Benson Louie, 50, both of San Francisco; and 46-year-old Michael Lefiti of Hercules, California. Two others were shot but survived the Wednesday morning shooting at the UPS San Francisco Customer Center.
Officers responded to a report of an active shooter about 8:55 a.m. local time at the UPS package sorting and delivery facility. When officers entered the building, they found the suspect armed with an assault pistol. The suspect immediately killed himself and no officers fired their weapons during the incident.
Lam, had worked as a driver for the Potrero Hill facility which employs 350 people. He was wearing his uniform during the shooting spree and opened fire on coworkers during a morning meeting for UPS drivers. Joseph Cilia, with a local Teamsters union that represents UPS workers in San Francisco has stated that Lam filed an internal grievance in March saying he was working excessive overtime. Cilia told the Associated Press that Lam did not seem angry when he filed the grievance.
A police official said it appears that Lam felt disrespected by co-workers, but it’s not clear if that was the motivation for the bloodshed. Lam appears to have targeted the three drivers he fatally shot. Shaun Vu, a senior UPS driver, has said Lam also struggled with personal issues and was depressed a few years ago. Vu said that Lam had shown improvement but seemed troubled a few weeks ago-which was around the time he filed the grievance.
Another UPS driver Leopold Parker, who witnessed the shooting, said that he was standing a few feet behind Benson Louie during the morning meeting when Lam walked up and shot Louie in the head. Lam then glanced at Parker but walked the other way so Parker jumped into the cab of his truck and later ran to the roof of the building.
Parker said drivers at the warehouse generally got along and didn’t mind working there. If they did have a problem with colleagues, they would talk to them or ignore them. He also stressed that drivers spent much of their time alone in their trucks, so they had limited interaction with their colleagues. He recalls that Lam sometimes complained about the workload but he never suspected that he would turn violent.
Other witnesses said that Mike “Big Mike” Lefiti was fleeing from the building as Lam followed him into the street and shot him. Mike McDonald, an area resident was walking home from work when he found Lefiti face down, bleeding profusely from the back. McDonald stayed with him and tried to comfort him until help arrived. McDonald said that in his final moments, Lefiti spoke lovingly about his three children. “He said he loves his family, he loves his children and that he didn’t do anything to this man.”
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According to state and county data, drug overdose deaths surged in 2016, killing nearly 60,000 Americans last year. It is an alarming 19% increase over the 52,404 recorded in 2015 and the largest annual jump ever recorded in the United States. All evidence suggests the problem has continued to worsen in 2017. The epidemic of opioid and heroin abuse means that for Americans under the age of 50, drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death.
The New York Times compiled estimates for 2016 from hundreds of state health departments and county coroners and medical examiners. The initial data points to large increases in drug overdose deaths in states along the East Coast, particularly Maryland, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Maine. The Times analysis suggests that the exponential growth in overdose deaths in 2016 didn’t extend to all parts of the country. In some states in the western half of the United States, overdose deaths may have leveled off or even declined.
The Times data showed that heroin and fentanyl-related deaths are still increasing across the United States – particularly in the Northeast and Midwest. The death rate from synthetic opioids, like fentanyl, surged 72% in 2015, and heroin death rates increased nearly 21 percent.
In Ohio, overdose deaths increased more than 25% in 2016, largely driven by Cook County, where 1,091 of the state’s 3,310 overdose deaths were reported. Last week, the state of Ohio filed a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical industry, accusing drug manufacturers of aggressively advertising opioids and lying to both doctors and patients about the dangers of addiction.
The Drug Enforcement Agency wrote in a 2016 report detailing what the organization calls a global threat “The United States is in the midst of a fentanyl crisis, with law enforcement reporting and public health data indicating higher availability of fentanyls, increased seizures of fentanyls, and more known overdose deaths from fentanyls than at any other time since the drugs were first created in 1959.”
California had the largest total number of overdose deaths at 4,659 in 2015, followed by OH with 3,310, which like West Virginia has been hard hit by the epidemic. The Drug Abuse Warning Network estimated that misuse or abuse of narcotic pain relievers were responsible for more than 420,000 emergency department visits in 2011, the most recent year for which we have data.
Experts warn a key factor of the surge in deaths is fentanyl, which can be 50 times more powerful than heroin. Fentanyl has been popping up in drug seizures across the country. It is usually sold on the street as heroin or drug traffickers use it to make cheap counterfeit prescription opioids. Fentanyls are showing up in cocaine as well, contributing to an increase in cocaine-related overdoses.
Research suggests that since heroin and opioid painkillers, (including prescription ones) act similarly in the brain. Opioid painkillers are often referred to by some doctors as “heroin lite” and taking one (even “as directed”) can increase one’s susceptibility to becoming hooked on the other.
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In Montana, tech millionaire Greg Gianforte won a special election for the state’s sole congressional seat just one day after he was charged with assaulting a reporter. Gianforte body-slammed Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs to the floor and repeatedly punched him, after Jacobs tried to ask about the Congressional Budget Office’s scoring of the House health care bill.
More than $6 million was spent by outside groups in Montana’s special election with 90% of the money favoring Gianforte. He won just over 50 percent of the vote, defeating Democratic challenger Rob Quist, who received 44 percent. Gianforte addressed the incident during his victory speech “Last night, I made a mistake, and I took an action that I can’t take back. And I’m not proud of what happened. I should not have responded in the way that I did. And for that, I’m sorry.”
Immediately after the violent altercation, the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs, quickly relayed the incident on social media. “Greg Gianforte just body slammed me and broke my glasses,” Jacobs tweeted. Jacobs went to a local hospital for an X-ray on his elbow and Gianforte left the event.
Jacobs’ account of the incident was corroborated by Fox News Alicia Acuna, who was in the room to interview Gianforte at the time of the violent attack. Acuna stated that after Jacobs asked Gianforte a question, Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck and slammed him to the ground before punching him repeatedly. “To be clear, at no point did any of us who witnessed this assault see Jacobs show any form of physical aggression toward Gianforte, who left the area after giving statements to local sheriff’s deputies,” Acuna wrote in her account of the attack.
The sheriff’s office released a statement saying it was investigating allegations of assault involving Greg Gianforte but held press conference hours later as news of the assault spread. Gianforte spokesperson Shane Scanlon released a statement that conflicted with witness accounts “Tonight, as Greg was giving a separate interview in a private office,” Scanlon said in the statement, “the Guardian’s Ben Jacobs entered the office without permission, aggressively shoved a recorder in Greg’s face, and began asking badgering questions. Jacobs was asked to leave. After asking Jacobs to lower the recorder, Jacobs declined. Greg then attempted to grab the phone that was pushed in his face. Jacobs grabbed Greg’s wrist, and spun away from Greg, pushing them both to the ground. It’s unfortunate that aggressive behavior from a liberal journalist created this scene at our campaign volunteer BBQ.”
In audio released of the incident, Jacobs asks Gianforte a question about the latest CBO scoring of the Affordable Health Care Act. “I’m sick and tired of you guys,” Gianforte said. A struggle can be heard on the recording as Gianforte continues “ The last guy who came here did the same thing. Get the hell out of here. Get the hell out of here. The last guy did the same thing. Are you with the Guardian?” “Yes! You just broke my glasses, you just body slammed me and broke my glasses,” Jacobs can be heard saying as Gianforte repeatedly yells at him to “Get the hell out of here.”
Earlier on the day of the assault, Jacobs had published a story in the Guardian about financial ties between Gianforte and Russian companies under U.S. sanctions. There is no word on whether his report in the Guardian was a motive in the assault.
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The U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to reinstate President Trump’s second attempt at a travel ban on all refugees and citizens of six majority-Muslim nations from entering the United States. The Justice Department has vowed to challenge the appeals court ruling and take it to the Supreme Court.
The court ruled 10-3 to uphold a ruling from a district court judge in Maryland that blocked a portion of the order that temporarily banned travel to the United States by nationals of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. In the majority decision, Chief Judge Roger Gregory wrote that Trump’s executive order uses “vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination.”
Judge Gregory listed televised interviews and numerous statements made at political rallies that, in the court’s view, indicated the true intentions of the order. He cited a rally statement in which Trump called the second order a “watered down version” of the first order as well as a televised interview with Rudy Giuliani who said that Trump had asked him to devise an immigration ban within the bounds of legality.
The judge wrote that a reasonable observer would likely conclude the order’s “primary purpose is to exclude persons from the United States on the basis of their religious beliefs”. The government argued that Trump’s comments on the campaign trail should not be taken into account since they occurred before he took office on Jan 20. The appeals court rejected that view, saying they provide a window into the motivations for Trump’s action in government.
The appeals court questioned a government argument that the president has wide authority to halt the entry of people to the United States. They were reviewing a March ruling by Maryland-based federal judge Theodore Chuang that blocked part of Trump’s March 6 executive order barring people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days while the government put in place stricter visa screening. A similar ruling against Trump’s policy from a Hawaii-based federal judge is still in place. The Hawaii judge’s ruling also blocked a section of the travel ban that also suspended refugee admissions for four months. The San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals is still reviewing that decision.
The Trump administration has argued that the temporary travel ban is a national security measure aimed at preventing Islamist militant attacks. “That’s why it’s not a Muslim ban”. The countries were not chosen because they are predominantly Muslim but because they present terrorism risks, the administration has said.
After the 4th Circuit Court ruling, Attorney-general Jeff Sessions said in a statement that the government would seek a review of the case at the Supreme Court. White House spokesperson Michael Short said “These clearly are very dangerous times and we need every available tool at our disposal to prevent terrorists from entering the United States and committing acts of bloodshed and violence,” adding that the White House was confident the order would ultimately be upheld by the judiciary.
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Twenty-two people were killed and 116 injured after a suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device at an Ariana Grande concert held in the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. The explosion occurred as people were exiting the arena after the show ended. Concert-goers and parents waiting to pick up their children were in the arena’s foyer when the bomb went off. The dead included ten people under the age of 20, the youngest an eight-year-old girl. Days later, 75 people remained hospitalized, 23 of them, including five children, in critical condition.
The sold out show was part of Ariana Grande’s 2017 Dangerous Woman Tour where up to 21,000 attended. As news of the explosion quickly spread, residents and taxi companies in Manchester offered free transport or accommodation to those left stranded at the concert. Nearby hotel became a shelter for children separated from parents in the aftermath of the explosion. Many local temples, businesses and homeowners offered immediate shelter to victims as they waited for news of missing loved ones.
The day after the attack, Prime Minister Theresa May raised the terror threat level from severe to critical. A critical threat level means that it is believed another attack is imminent. It also means members of the British military will be deployed throughout the country to supplement its police forces. Nearly 4,000 soldiers were deployed nationwide in the wake of the bombing. ISIS claimed responsibility for the bombing which is the 13th deadly terrorist attack in Western Europe since the beginning of 2015.
The bomber was identified as 22 year old Salman Ramadan Abedi, a British Muslim who was born in Manchester to Libyan-born refugees. Abedi was allegedly reported to authorities about his extremism, by as many as five people, including community leaders, neighbors and possibly family members.
Authorities had investigated him but did not consider him high risk at the time. Authorities have revealed that Abedi had returned to the UK from Turkey four days prior to the attack. French interior minister Gérard Collomb said that Abedi may have been to Syria, and had “proven” links with ISIS. Manchester police believe Abedi used student loans to finance the plot, including travel overseas to learn bomb-making.
Police have conducted several raids and detained a total of eight people in connection to the attack and said they were investigating a “network” as the probe intensified. Authorities have confirmed that Abedi’s father and younger brother have been arrested in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. The brother was suspected of planning an attack in Libya and was said to be in regular touch with Salman. Investigators believe his brother was aware of the plan to bomb the Manchester Arena, but not the date. According to a Libyan official, the brothers spoke on the phone about 15 minutes before the attack was carried out in Manchester.
Abedi’s father, Ramadan Abedi was born in Libya but fled under fear of arrest by the brutal regime of Moammar Gadhafi in 1993. He won asylum in Britain, where his sons were born. Abedi later returned to Libya and works as an administrator for the government, which has been in disarray since Gadhafi was toppled in 2011.
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Members of the Trump administration and Pentagon officials are pushing for the deployment 3,000 to 5,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. There are currently about 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Officials are also looking for the relaxation of restrictions on launching airstrikes. The recommendation comes after the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, warned the war has reached a stalemate. Trump is expected to decide whether to approve the deployment of additional troops later this month.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis visited Kabul to speak with Nicholson just days after an attack by a Taliban-affiliated militants killed 140 Afghan troops, most of whom were unarmed in a mosque praying at their base. The Pentagon’s proposal is aimed at countering the resilient Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan by adding thousands more troops closer to combat and bombarding the Taliban with airstrikes. Army General John Nicholson told the Senate the security situation had deteriorated. If approved, the decision would allow U.S. troops to partner with Afghan forces closer to the fight rather than just playing an advisory role.
The Pentagon had been focused on ending its presence in Afghanistan since 2001 but after the September 11th attacks, U.S. forces, with 100,000 troops deployed-helped topple the Taliban government that had given shelter to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist organization.
With the end of the combat mission “Enduring Freedom” and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the United States had pulled out most its troops in late 2014. The Obama administration decided to leave a force of about 13,000 troops in place after responding to pleas from U.S. Commanders. The 13,000 includes all active duty service personnel from all branches (Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force), National Guard and Reserve as well as civilian employees of the Department of Defense and civilian contractors (APF) – which make up the smallest group.
There have been restrictions in place regarding how close Americans could accompany Afghan forces in combat and on bombing Taliban targets. Those rules were eased last year, and the Pentagon’s recent proposal would grant added authority for air strikes. The current NATO-led operation in Afghanistan is called “Resolute Support” and aims to train and advise the Afghan security forces. Sporadic combat operations are left to Special Forces. The U.S. military engagement in Afghanistan is America’s longest war and the Pentagon’s proposal means it won’t be ending any time soon.
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United Airlines has reached a settlement with Kentucky physician, Dr. David Dao, who was dragged off a plane at O’Hare International Airport in early April. The incident aboard Flight 3411 was captured on video by passengers on the plane and widely shared online around the world. It quickly became an international embarrassment for both the carrier and the city’s aviation department.
Dao’s attorney Thomas Demetrio, announced that a settlement had been reached, but terms were not disclosed. The airline released a written statement in response to the announcement: “We are pleased to report that United and Dr. Dao have reached an amicable resolution of the unfortunate incident that occurred aboard flight 3411. We look forward to implementing the improvements we have announced, which will put our customers at the center of everything we do.”
The airline unveiled new policies earlier in the same day the settlement was reached. Part of the new policies include a promise to not use law enforcement to remove overbooked customers from planes, additional training for front-line employees and setting up an automated system that will ask passengers at check-in if they would be willing to give up their seat. United CEO Oscar Munoz also pledged to reduce the amount of overbooking and offer up to $10,000 for customers willing to volunteer to take a later flight.
Dao’s attorney praised Munoz for agreeing to the settlement. “Mr. Munoz said he was going to do the right thing and he has. In addition, United has taken full responsibility for what happened on Flight 3411, without attempting to blame others, including the City of Chicago. For this acceptance of corporate accountability, United is to be applauded.”
Demetrio added “Dr. Dao has become the unintended champion for the adoption of changes which will certainly help improve the lives of literally millions of travelers. I sincerely hope that all other airlines make similar changes and follow United’s lead in helping to improve the passenger flying experience with an emphasis on empathy, patience, respect and dignity.”
Dr. Dao, 69, of Elizabethtown, Ky., was one of four passengers picked to be bumped from an April 9th flight from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to Louisville, Ky., to make room for four airline employees who were added to the flight shortly before it departed. When he refused to leave, multiple Chicago Department of Aviation security officers were called to remove him.
According to a report released by the Chicago Department of Aviation, Officer James Long boarded the plane to respond to a disturbance involving two passengers who were refusing to leave the aircraft. When he approached Dao’s seat and asked him to leave, Long said Dao “folded his arms tightly” and refused to leave the aircraft. The officer said he was able to “hold” the physician in order to remove him from his window seat.
A struggle ensued between Dao and the officer in the isle of the aircraft. Dao, who was hospitalized in Chicago, suffered a concussion, a broken nose and lost two teeth in the ordeal. The viral video shows Dao being dragged by his arms down the aisle of the plane as other passengers watch in horror.
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The state of Arkansas received heavy criticism and sparked new debates over the death penalty after they rushed to carry out an unprecedented series of 8 executions in 11 days during the month of April as its supply of the sedative midazolam was set to expire at the end of the month. All eight men were convicted of murders that occurred between 1989 and 1999 with some of the crimes described as particularly heinous. The eight men scheduled for execution were Kenneth Williams, Bruce Ward, Stacey Johnson, Don Williamson Davis, Ledell Lee, Jack Harold Jones, Jason McGehee and Marcel Williams.
Governor Hutchinson signed proclamations setting four execution dates for the eight inmates between April 17 and 27. Two men would be put to death on each of the four dates. In a statement he said that it was necessary to schedule the executions close together because of doubts about the future availability of one of three drugs the state uses in its lethal-injection procedure.
Arkansas uses a cocktail of three drugs in its lethal injection formula: Midazolam is used to sedate the prisoner, vecuronium bromide paralyzes prisoners and stops their breathing, and potassium chloride stops the heart. Midazolam is the most controversial of the three since it has repeatedly failed to make prisoners unconscious in other executions, leading to painful deaths. It is not approved by the FDA to be used as an anesthetic on its own, but doctors do use it combined with other drugs before surgical procedures. That is not the case in prisons.
The hurried schedule hit roadblocks from the moment it was announced as attorneys for the eight men attempted to block the executions- including using the argument that midazolam does not effectively prevent a painful death. Separate rulings stayed the executions of two of the prisoners, Don Davis and Bruce Ward. Arkansas appealed the decision in Davis’ case, but the US Supreme Court upheld it. Then Federal Judge Kristine Baker put a stop to all eight executions on April 15, a decision that the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed two days later. By the end of April, four of the men received stays for various reasons.
Despite the drug shortage and the controversy over its use- lethal injection remains the country’s primary method of execution. The drug shortage has spurred some states to begin adapting new and untested combinations of drugs while other states look at other methods of executions. Utah, Tennessee and Oklahoma added or broadened their abilities to use a firing squad, electric chair or nitrogen gas.
With the month over and the expiration date passing-the freshly stirred dust on the death penalty debate has not settled. Capital punishment has long been a divisive issue in the United States with support of it declining to a 40 year low. According to a 2016 Pew Research Center poll, Americans remain split, with 49 percent in favor and 42 percent against it (9% were undecided).
Nationwide, the number of executions has faced a decline as well. Since 2007, seven states have abolished the death penalty and the governors of four others have issued moratoria on the practice. Arkansas is currently one of 31 states with courts that still issue death sentences.
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Relations between North Korea and the US and South Korea have rapidly deteriorated in recent months, as the rhetoric and military posturing on both sides has increased. North Korea has threatened to sink a U.S. aircraft carrier that is conducting military drills, along with Japanese ships, in the waters off the Korean Peninsula.
U.S. Aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain and guided-missile destroyers USS Michael Murphy and USS Wayne E Meyer have practiced for war with North Korea with a series of military drills. US allies South Korea and Japan surrounded North Korea with joint exercises on both sides of the Korean peninsula. The navy fleet is now within “striking range” of North Korea, in the Philippine Sea- just east of the Japanese island of Okinawa.
North Korea conducted its own military drills which involved 300 large-caliber self-propelled guns lined up along the coast where they opened fire with live rounds. A statement from the South Korean military said the live-fire exercises were in the Wonsan region in the east of the country. North Korea fired four ballistic missiles toward Japan as part of its exercise targeting US bases there.
Soon after those drills were conducted, the US began to deploy its advanced THAAD anti-missile defense system in South Korea, despite opposition from Russia and China. The deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system came THAAD is a missile defense system designed to intercept short and medium-range ballistic missiles as they begin their descent to their targets. Developed by Lockheed Martin, THAAD missiles use infrared seeker technology to locate their targets and detonate on impact.
Both Russia and China have spoken out against the THAAD deployment. China’s Foreign Ministry stated that it was “resolutely opposed” to the move and say the missile system actually aims to counter China’s military power in the region, not to contain North Korea. The deployment also drew protests from hundreds of villagers in Seongju, South Korea, who clashed with police as troops began deploying THAAD hardware on a local golf course.
The Trump administration called the entire US Senate to a meeting at the White House, for a briefing on North Korea with the US secretaries of Defense and State. President Trump recently stated “North Korea is a big world problem, and it’s a problem we have to finally solve. People put blindfolds on for decades and now it’s time to solve the problem.” Many fear that Trump is backing himself into a corner with his firm stance on North Korea, leading both countries to a point where “bad things are going to happen.”
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