Top News Stories for Today – Jan 12, 2019
Top News Stories for Today – Jan 12, 2019
4 US men receive pardons 70 years later
Four black men who were wrongly accused of raping a 17-year-old white girl in the southern US state of Florida 70 years ago, received pardons Friday. All of them are dead. Members of their families, however, are still alive. The families attended the clemency hearing in Tallahassee Friday where officials voted unanimously to pardon the four men.
Thomas was killed by a mob shortly after the incident in 1949. The other three were tortured into confessions and convicted by all-white juries. Shepherd was shot and killed by a sheriff who was transporting him to a re-trial. Greenlee and Irvin received life sentences. Independent investigators have proved the men who were convicted without any evidence, during the notorious Jim Crow-era in the US, were innocent of the charge. Devil In The Grove, a book about the Groveland Four case, won a Pulitzer Prize in 2013. VOA
France brace for revived yellow vest protests
The central French city of Bourges is shuttering shops to brace for possible violence between police and yellow vest protesters, as the nationwide movement seeks a new stage for its weekly demonstrations. Paris, too, is hunkering down for a ninth weekend of anti-government protests Saturday. France’s government has deployed 80,000 security forces for the day, and Interior Minister Christophe Castaner threatened tough retaliation against violence.
The protest movement waned over the holidays but appears to be resurging, despite concessions by President Emmanuel Macron. Protesters want deeper changes to France’s economy and politics. VOA
Shutdown becomes longest in US history
With lawmakers remaining in a stalemate on Friday over President Trump’s spurned demand for $5.7 billion for a border wall, the partial government shutdown will become the longest in US history. Members of Congress departed for the weekend with no funding deal in sight, ensuring the shutdown will last at least 23 days, breaking a 21-day record previously held during President Bill Clinton’s administration.
Some 800,000 federal employees are working without pay or furloughed. Trump is taking the brunt of the blame for the shutdown, polls show, followed by congressional Democrats then congressional Republicans. Trump has threatened to declare a national emergency in order to end the impasse and build the wall without congressional approval, but on Friday said he wasn’t eyeing such a move “right now.” The Week
Birth control coverage under Trump rules
A “substantial number” of women would lose free birth control coverage under new rules by the Trump administration that allow more employers to opt out of providing the benefit, a US judge said at a hearing Friday.Judge Haywood Gilliam appeared inclined to grant a request by California and other states that he block the rules while the states’ lawsuit moves forward. He said he would rule before Monday, when the rules are set to take effect.
The changes would allow more employers, including publicly traded companies, to opt out of providing no-cost contraceptive coverage to women by claiming religious objections. Some private employers could also object on moral grounds. VOA
Sandy Hook families against Infowars’ Alex Jones
Six families related to victims of 2012’s Sandy Hook school shooting will be able to access conspiracy website Infowars’ internal financial documents, a judge ruled Friday. The families sued Infowars founder Alex Jones for perpetuating a hoax that claimed the Newtown, Connecticut, shooting didn’t happen, resulting in harassment and death threats from his followers.
The Connecticut judge granted discovery requests to the families, including marketing documents, and will hold a hearing next week to decide whether the plaintiffs can depose Jones. Plaintiffs in the suit include the parents of five children and the family members of a teacher and school principal, all among the 26 killed in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The Week
FBI probed if Trump worked for Russia after firing Comey
In the days after President Trump fired James B. Comey as F.B.I. director, law enforcement officials became so concerned by the president’s behavior that they began investigating whether he had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests, according to former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation.
The inquiry carried explosive implications. Counterintelligence investigators had to consider whether the president’s own actions constituted a possible threat to national security. Agents also sought to determine whether Mr. Trump was knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow’s influence. The investigation the F.B.I. opened into Mr. Trump also had a criminal aspect, which has long been publicly known: whether his firing of Mr. Comey constituted obstruction of justice. New York Times, Fox