A grand jury declined to return an indictment Thursday against Brittany Watts, an Ohio woman facing an abuse of corpse charge after suffering a miscarriage in her home. The Trumbull County prosecutor’s office stated that, after evaluating the case, they believed Watts did not violate the Ohio Criminal Statute of Abuse of a Corpse. The grand [...]
A group of international human rights organizations sent a letter to US President Joe Biden Wednesday calling for the US, one of Israel’s most vocal international allies and supplier of weapons, to facilitate stronger protections for journalists and freedom of the press in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas War. The letter, signed by the Committee to [...]
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Thursday that the U.S. State Department has imposed sanctions on one individual and three Russian entities engaged in transferring and testing North Korea’s ballistic missiles, intended for use by Russia against Ukraine. The entities and individual subject to US-imposed sanctions include the 224th Flight Unit State Airlines, [...]
A bomb threat was reported early Thursday morning at the Long Island residence of Judge Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over the civil fraud trial of former President Donald Trump, according to US media. Officials from the Nassau County Police Department subsequently confirmed that the threat was, in fact, a swatting incident—a deliberate false alarm crafted [...]
West Virginia State Senator Mike Azinger introduced a slew of bills targeting transgender people on Wednesday, including a bill to classify transgender people as “obscene matter” and a bill banning gender-affirming care for people under the age of 21. Senate Bill 195 amends the state’s indecent exposure law to criminalize engaging in “obscene matter.” It [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit heard oral arguments from federal prosecutors and former President Donald Trump’s legal team on the issue of presidential immunity earlier this week. Trump argued that he is shielded from criminal liability in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case against him, which alleges that Trump interfered in the [...]
US Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) filed a motion on Wednesday asking US District Judge Sidney Stein to dismiss charges that he allegedly conspired to act as a foreign agent of Egypt. The motion to dismiss relates to an indictment filed in October that accused Menendez of supporting the interests of several businessmen and the Egyptian [...]
The US Appeals Court for the Eleventh Circuit found on Wednesday that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis violated a local prosecutor’s First Amendment rights under the US Constitution when he suspended the prosecutor for refusing to enforce state laws surrounding access to reproductive health. The case has now been sent back down to the trial court [...]
The US House Homeland Security Committee held its first impeachment hearing on Wednesday into Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The hearing was initiated by House Republicans who accused Mayorkas of failing to follow immigration law and of violating the public trust as border crossings have reached record levels. Chairman Mark Greene (R-TN) of the Homeland [...]
A federal judge in Alabama ruled on Wednesday that the state can proceed to use nitrogen gas in the execution of Kenneth Smith. Smith has been on death row since he was convicted of murder in 1988. Smith is currently scheduled to be executed on January 25. He was previously scheduled to be executed on [...]