Mentor

Suspect in Michigan airport stabbing to make court appearance

A man charged with stabbing an airport police officer in an attack federal investigators are probing as an act of terrorism is expected to appear in a Michigan federal court on Wednesday. Amor Ftouhi, 49, of Quebec, Canada, was charged in federal court with violence at an international airport for stabbing officer Jeff Neville at the Bishop International Airport in Flint on June 21.

Utah wildfire levels 13 homes, forces evacuation of 1,500 people

A fierce wildfire that has destroyed more than a dozen homes and forced the evacuation of 1,500 residents raged largely unchecked in southwestern Utah for an 11th day, as an army of firefighters struggled to corral the flames. As of Tuesday morning, the blaze had scorched nearly 50,000 acres, the bulk of that in the Dixie National Forest, with crews managing to carve containment lines around just 10 percent of the fire's perimeter, officials said. The fire erupted on June 17 near the ski resort of Brian Head, Utah, about 30 miles northeast of Zion National Park, and spread quickly as high winds drove flames into dense forests, threatening homes in nearby communities.

Judge reopens case of Colorado 'intersex' veteran denied passport

A federal judge on Tuesday agreed to review the constitutionality of a U.S. State Department policy of refusing to grant passports to people who identify as neither male nor female. In November, U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson directed the State Department to reconsider its "binary-only gender passport policy," in the case of Navy veteran Dan Zzyym, an “intersex” Colorado resident who sued the federal government for refusing to issue a passport because it requires an applicant to denote either male or female gender. After conducting its court-ordered review, the State Department last month again denied Zzyym’s application, according to a motion filed on the plaintiff's behalf by the Lambda Legal Defense Fund asking Jackson to reopen the case.

'Pharma bro' Martin Shkreli's notoriety slows New York jury selection

Jury selection in the New York trial of former drug company executive Martin Shkreli will enter its third day Wednesday, after some potential jurors said they could not be fair to a man who gained notoriety by raising the price of a life-saving drug more than 5,000 percent. U.S. prosecutors have accused Shkreli, dubbed the "pharma bro," of running a Ponzi-like scheme at his former hedge fund and a drug company he once ran. Shkreli has pleaded not guilty to charges of securities and wire fraud.

Illinois House Democrats push new budget plan to end impasse

Staring down the start of a new fiscal year, Illinois House Democrats offered a budget on Tuesday that would spend less than the Republican governor's plan, but kept their specific revenue-raising proposal under wraps. An impasse between Governor Bruce Rauner and Democrats who control the legislature has left Illinois without complete budgets for an unprecedented two-straight fiscal years. The nearly $36.5 billion general funds budget was the first spending blueprint offered by House Speaker Michael Madigan for the fiscal year that begins Saturday.

Madoff settlements reach $12 billion with new accords

The trustee recouping money for Bernard Madoff's victims on Tuesday announced nearly $371 million of new settlements with two groups of offshore funds that invested with the imprisoned Ponzi schemer, boosting the total recovery to about $12 billion. Irving Picard, the trustee, said Lagoon Investment Ltd agreed to repay $240.7 million from an account through which Hermes International Fund Ltd invested with Madoff, while Thema Fund Ltd and an affiliate agreed to repay $130.1 million. Picard announced the settlements with British Virgin Islands-based Lagoon and Bermuda-based Thema one day after revealing more than $23 million of settlements with the estates of Madoff's late sons Andrew and Mark, and entities affiliated with the Madoff family.

Some would-be immigrants left in limbo after Supreme Court travel ban order

Without close family in the United States, Elly and her husband had few options for getting permission to immigrate to America from Iran. "Since last year, we made all the important decisions in our lives because we hoped we would get a visa," Elly said, declining to give her full name because her visa application is still in process. The couple decided to put off having children and purchasing a home until after their move to the United States.

New York mob suspects admit to vendetta arson, robbery

Three men, including the late mobster John Gotti's grandson, admitted on Tuesday that they torched a car because its driver cut off a reputed Bonanno crime family associate in traffic in April 2012, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said Vincent Asaro, 82, who was cleared in November 2015 of involvement in the famed 1978 Lufthansa airport heist that helped inspire the movie "Goodfellas," became enraged when a motorist moved in front of his car at a traffic light. John J. Gotti, Matthew "Fat Matt" Rullan and Asaro, an alleged member of the Bonanno crime family, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn to charges related to the arson and robbery under an agreement with federal prosecutors, said John Marzulli, a spokesman for Acting U.S. Attorney Bridget Rohde.

Family sues over fatal police shooting of Louisiana black man

The family of a black man killed last year by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city and police on Tuesday, alleging a history of excessive-force incidents and racism toward African-Americans. The death of Alton Sterling, 37, was among a series of racially charged police killings that inflamed a national debate over treatment of minorities by law enforcement. The lawsuit, filed in state court on behalf of Sterling's five children, seeks unspecified damages from the city, Police Chief Carl Dabadie Jr. and his department, and the two officers involved in the shooting, among others.

Connecticut will seek solution in Yale gender-neutral bathroom suit

A Connecticut official said on Tuesday the state would reconsider policies that can limit gender-neutral bathrooms in public buildings following a lawsuit by Yale University, the latest skirmish in the broader U.S. fight about gender identity. The Ivy League school said in the lawsuit it wants to designate all single-occupant restrooms at its law school as gender neutral, but the plan runs afoul of the state building code, which does not count gender-neutral bathrooms when it assesses whether a public building has enough toilets.

EPA and Army Corps seek to rescind clean water rule

By Valerie Volcovici WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers released a proposal on Tuesday to repeal the 2015 Clean Water Rule, the latest move by the Trump administration to unwind environmental regulations put in place under former President Barack Obama. The agencies are working to rescind the rule, known as the Waters of the United States rule, and reinstate the language of the rule before it was changed in 2015. The rule updated the federal Clean Water Act to define what waterways - including streams, rivers and other bodies - can be regulated by the federal government, stirring anger by the agriculture and energy industries, which said it gave regulators too much authority.

North Carolina man gets life in prison for plotting Islamic State attack

Justin Sullivan, 21, of Morganton, was sentenced in federal court in Asheville on one count of attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries, the Justice Department said in a statement. Sullivan had pleaded guilty in November 2016, and the agreement with prosecutors called for the life sentence. Prosecutors said Sullivan conspired with Junaid Hussain, a British hacker who was an online recruiter of people to carry out attacks on behalf of the militant group Islamic State.

Ten Commandments monument installed in Arkansas; ACLU vows court fight

Arkansas installed a Ten Commandments monument on the state's Capitol grounds on Tuesday, and a civil liberties group pledged a court challenge, saying it showed an unconstitutional government preference for a certain religion. Legislators approved the act for the monument in 2015, and whether it was appropriate for the public grounds has been debated since. At the installation ceremony for the some 3,000-pound (1,360 kg) granite slab in Little Rock, state Senator Jason Rapert noted that the Ten Commandments were chiseled into the portals of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Supreme Court tosses ruling against religious school subsidies

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out a lower court's ruling prohibiting the use of public funds to pay for children to attend private religious schools, a day after it issued a major ruling narrowing the separation of church and state. The justices ordered Colorado's top court to reconsider the legality of school "voucher" programs in light of Monday's ruling that churches and other religious entities cannot be categorically denied public money even in states whose constitutions explicitly ban such funding. In that ruling, which could bolster the case for vouchers and other subsidies to religious schools, the justices sided with a Missouri church that objected to being denied access to public grant money for a playground improvement project because the state's constitution bans public funding of religious entities.

New York City subway train derails, 34 injured

A New York City subway train derailed in upper Manhattan on Tuesday, causing minor injuries to 34 people and forcing the evacuation of passengers from dark, smoke-filled carriages, officials and witnesses said. Authorities said the southbound train struck a tunnel wall just before 10 a.m., causing two cars to derail near the 125th-street station in Harlem. The crash was being investigated, the city's Office of Emergency Management said.

Evangelical Christians becoming less opposed to gay marriage, poll finds

U.S. groups who traditionally have opposed same-sex marriage, including Republicans and white evangelical Christians, have become much less steadfast in their objections, according to a new Pew Research Center poll. Sixty-two percent of U.S. respondents now approve of same-sex marriage, up from 57 percent when the Supreme Court legalized it in all 50 states two years ago and from 37 percent in 2007, according to the survey, which was released on Monday. The survey found rising support for same-sex marriage across affiliations with political parties, race and religion, with support strongest among younger Americans born after 1980 and Democrats.

Watchdog group sues EPA to access communications with Icahn

A U.S. watchdog group filed a lawsuit in a federal court on Tuesday to force the Environmental Protection Agency to release communications with billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who it says tried to influence biofuels policy for personal gain. American Oversight, which has filed nearly a dozen lawsuits against the Trump administration on a range of issues, filed the suit after it did not get an "adequate" response from two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for communications between Icahn and representatives of his oil refining company CVR Energy Inc and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and senior agency officials.

Maine governor warns of partial government shutdown in budget fight

Maine Governor Paul LePage warned residents on Tuesday that parts of the state's government could shut down as soon as Friday if lawmakers are unable to reach an agreement on the next two-year budget of roughly $7 billion. LePage said he and legislative leaders are $145 million apart in their negotiations over the budget, with Democrats seeking additional funding for schools while LePage is urging cuts elsewhere in the budget to offset spending.

U.S. judge halts deportation of Iraqis nationwide

By Steve Friess DETROIT (Reuters) - A federal judge halted late on Monday the deportation of all Iraqi nationals detained during immigration sweeps across the United States this month until at least July 10, expanding a stay he imposed last week. The stay had initially only protected 114 detainees from the Detroit area. U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith sided with lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union who filed an amended complaint on Saturday seeking to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from deporting Iraqis from anywhere in the United States.

California to list herbicide as cancer-causing; Monsanto vows fight

(Reuters) - Glyphosate, an herbicide and the active ingredient in Monsanto Co's popular Roundup weed killer, will be added to California's list of chemicals known to cause cancer effective July 7, the state's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) said on Monday.

California to list glyphosate as cancer-causing; Monsanto vows fight

Glyphosate, an herbicide and the active ingredient in Monsanto Co's popular Roundup weed killer, will be added to California's list of chemicals known to cause cancer effective July 7, the state's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) said on Monday. Monsanto vowed to continue its legal fight against the designation, required under a state law known as Proposition 65, and called the decision "unwarranted on the basis of science and the law." The listing is the latest legal setback for the seeds and chemicals company, which has faced increasing litigation over glyphosate since the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer said that it is "probably carcinogenic" in a controversial ruling in 2015.

Texas sanctuary city law could lead to immigration police state: lawyer

A small border town and some of the largest cities in Texas told a federal judge on Monday a new state law aimed at punishing sanctuary cities could lead to an immigration police state and asked him to halt it because it was unconstitutional. The Republican-backed law in Texas, the U.S. state with the longest border with Mexico, takes effect on September 1. It is the first of its kind since Republican Donald Trump became president in January, promising to crack down on illegal immigration.

Seattle employers cut hours after latest minimum wage rise, study finds

Low-wage workers on average now clock 9 percent fewer hours and earn $125 less each month than before the Pacific Northwest city set one of the highest minimum wages in the nation, the University of Washington research paper said. Seattle, which has a booming economy and a strong technology sector, is midway through an initiative to increase its minimum wage for all employers to $15 an hour.

Move to rename Harlem neighborhood sparks outrage over erasing black history

New York City real estate companies' attempts to rename a Harlem neighborhood "SoHa" have enraged long-time residents of the historically black enclave, who say the move erases the community's rich cultural history. The neighborhood served as home and inspiration to generations of leading African Americans, including activists W.E.B. Du Bois and Malcolm X, who dubbed it "Seventh Heaven." Artists such as poet Langston Hughes and singers Harry Belafonte and Ella Fitzgerald also lived there. The "SoHa" name, echoing the high-priced, largely white Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo in lower Manhattan, has begun appearing in real estate listings for apartments located between 110th Street and 125th Street, and Realtor Keller Williams boasts a "SoHa Team" of agents on its website.

Twenty-two million Americans would lose health coverage under Senate bill: CBO

Twenty-two million Americans would lose their health insurance coverage over the next decade under draft legislation unveiled by Senate Republicans last week, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said on Monday. By comparison, the CBO had earlier estimated that similar legislation passed by the House of Representatives would cause 23 million Americans to lose coverage by 2026. In an analysis of the Senate draft, the CBO said the number of Americans who would be uninsured by 2026 under the Senate bill would be 49 million.

Former Green Bay Packers star charged with slapping daughter

Green, 40, was arrested at his home in a suburb of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and charged with physical abuse of a child and disorderly conduct after a neighbor called police when the girl fled his home, police said in papers filed in Brown County Circuit Court. The former National Football League star running back told responding officers that he struck the girl and shoved her late on Sunday after a day-long dispute over household chores, police said. A representative of Lammi Sports Management, which represents Green, declined to comment.

U.S. top court backs church in major religious rights case

By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Churches and other religious entities cannot be flatly denied public money even in states where constitutions explicitly ban such funding, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday in a major religious rights case that narrows the separation of church and state. The justices, in a 7-2 ruling, sided with Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Missouri, which sued after being denied access to a state grant program that helps nonprofit groups buy rubber playground surfaces made from recycled tires. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the court's majority, said that "the exclusion of Trinity Lutheran from a public benefit for which it is otherwise qualified, solely because it is a church, is odious to our Constitution" and "cannot stand." Missouri's constitution prohibits "any church, sect or denomination of religion" or clergy member from receiving state money, language that goes further than the U.S. Constitution's separation of church and state.

Kentucky lawyer in $600 million fraud scheme flees U.S.: report

A Kentucky lawyer who pleaded guilty to participating in a $600 million disability fraud scheme has fled to a country that does not have an extradition treaty with the United States, local media reported. Eric Christopher Conn, 56, used a fake passport to flee to a country he did not identify, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader, which said it exchanged emails with a person it identified as Conn. The paper said on Sunday that person answered correctly questions only Conn would know. Scott White, Conn's attorney, could not be reached by Reuters for comment, but he told the newspaper that he also received emails from that same address, from a person he believed to be Conn.

SEC wins latest round over how its judges are appointed

A divided U.S. appeals court handed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission a victory on Monday over how it appoints its in-house judges in a decision that could pave the way for the Supreme Court to resolve the matter. In a 5-5 split, a panel of 10 judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit effectively rejected a legal challenge by former radio talk show host Raymond Lucia, who had asked the court to review whether the SEC violated the U.S. Constitution when it appointed its administrative law judges. Monday's decision in the SEC's favor is at odds with the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which previously ruled that the SEC violated the Constitution in how its judges were appointed in a similar case.