Author: rpnadmin

A district court has sided with a Texas judge who recused herself from performing same-sex weddings on account of her Christian faith. The decision resolved a lawsuit that Judge Dianne Hensley filed against the State Commission on Judicial Conduct after it disciplined her for choosing not to officiate same-sex marriages. The final judgment issued by a state district court permanently forbids the commission from “investigating, sanctioning, or disciplining Judge Hensley over her refusal to officiate at same sex weddings on account of her religious beliefs, regardless of whether Judge Hensley continues to perform marriages for opposite-sex couples.” It also awards…

About 160 troops at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, have been infected with influenza over the past three weeks, including one trainee’s death that is still under investigation, multiple news outlets report.  Because of the outbreak, the Air Force received an exception to the new voluntary vaccine policy and now requires flu shots for recruits at Lackland. Symptomatic trainees have been isolated and are receiving antiviral medications such as Tamiflu. The outbreak comes less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that U.S. troops would no longer be required to be vaccinated against the flu.…

DALLAS — As people gather across the U.S. to celebrate Juneteenth on Friday, former President Barack Obama’s presidential center will open its doors to the public for the first time. Located on a sprawling campus on Chicago’s South Side, the center for the nation’s first Black president has been designed to inspire people to make the change they want to see in their own communities. It’s the kind of contemplation that also comes as Americans gather for Juneteenth, which celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S. The holiday marks June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Texas at…

NEW YORK — In a stunning reversal, Luigi Mangione’s lawyers told a judge Thursday that he will no longer be asserting a psychiatric defense at his state murder trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The retraction came just a day after Mangione’s lawyers told Judge Gregory Carro that they planned to pursue a defense involving claims that the 28-year-old Ivy League graduate was suffering from extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the Dec. 4, 2024, killing. A message seeking comment was left with a spokesperson for Mangione’s lawyers. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting…

LOS ANGELES — Comedian Carlos Mencia was arrested Thursday and charged with 12 felony charges for failing to report or pay taxes on more than $8 million in earnings, prosecutors said. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced the charges at a news conference where he called Mencia “one of California’s biggest tax scofflaws.” He said the 58-year-old stand-up comic was charged with six felony counts for failing to report personal income from 2019 to 2024, and six more for corporate taxes for the same period. Mencia owes more than $300,000 in state taxes on income totaling $8.7 million,…

JACKSON, Miss. — The fatal shooting of a 1-year-old boy by police who were responding to a shoplifting call this week has ignited simmering tensions between police and Black residents in the small town of Senatobia, Mississippi. The death of Kohen Wiley is the latest in a series of troubling encounters with police that have outraged community members in recent years. It has led to protests and calls for greater police accountability in the town of 8,000, with some civil rights activists pointing to Kohen’s death as another example of a Black life lost over something of nominal value -…

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s law requiring children under 16 to get parental consent to use social media apps must be restored, a divided panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. The decision comes as a blow to NetChoice, which had won court victories against similar laws in other states, including California and Arkansas. The trade group representing TikTok, Snapchat, Meta and other major tech companies brought suit against Ohio’s law in 2024, arguing that it was overly broad, vague and represented an unconstitutional impediment to free speech. The Cincinnati-based Sixth Circuit’s panel disagreed. In a 2-1 decision,…

The business jet barreled cockeyed down the dark highway, knocking down one light pole after another, an orange glow of sparks trailing it. From a distance, Ivan Franco thought it must be a car. But as he approached in his tow truck, he saw it was a plane – broken in half, its fuselage resting on its side, bright fire beginning to rise above. He stopped and rifled through the rescue kit his company keeps in the truck, grabbing a sledgehammer as well as three fire extinguishers, which he handed off to police officers. “At that moment, you don’t think…

EDGEWOOD, N.M. — Five years to the day that Navajo elder Ella Mae Begay disappeared from her home in a remote corner of Arizona, the man who acknowledged beating her, stealing her truck and leaving her on the roadside is free from prison. Preston Tolth pleaded guilty to robbing Begay and was sentenced on May 8 to five years in prison with credit for three years already served. He was released Monday, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Begay’s relatives, who expected Tolth to remain in custody until at least 2028, said they were shocked when they heard Monday.…

NEW YORK — Tourists and bystanders scrambled for cover in New York’s Times Square on Thursday after several gunshots were fired, sending people running in all directions. Police said a suspect was quickly chased down. The Fire Department reported that one person was taken to a hospital, although no additional details were released. A webcam video shows at least two people in black clothing step into the crowded intersection and open fire with what appear to be handguns. Panicked bystanders can be seen scrambling to get away or duck for cover as the suspects run away down the street, chased…