Sean Grayson, who was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer in 2023, was serving a 20-year sentence for second-degree murderThe former Illinois sheriff's deputy convicted of fatally shooting Sonya Massey in her home after she reported a possible prowler to 911, has died, his attorney said Sunday.Sean Grayson died on Sunday, lawyer Daniel Fultz - who represented the ex-Sangamon county deputy at his trial - told NBC News and CBS News.The Associated Press contributed Continue reading...
Key speech to be delivered this week at Jackson Hole said to focus on productivity and demographics in the US. Plus, how do you vaccinate 1,000 little penguins in the wild?Good morning. The new US Federal Reserve chair, Kevin Warsh, faces a critical test this week amid anxiety in government bond markets over inflation and Donald Trump's tax and spending plans. As the world's most powerful central bank prepares for its annual Jackson Hole conference, analysts said bond traders would be looking for signals from Warsh over its commitment to fighting inflation.However, Warsh has signalled reluctance to use his speech on Friday for the more traditional setup" of dropping hints over how the US central bank may respond to inflationary pressures when its officials next meet to set interest rates in September and December. Instead, he has said his Jackson Hole speech could be focused on bigger questions", including concerns over productivity and demographics.Why is this a crucial moment for the Fed? The gathering of the world's most powerful central bankers in the Grand Teton national park is a blue riband event in the financial calendar. However, the meeting comes as selling pressure intensifies in the $30tn US government debt market despite efforts by the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, to assuage investor worries after he committed to at least double Washington's purchases of US Treasury bonds.What did Joshua Aviles say about his father's arrest? I've been deployed for over nine months, out at sea in the Middle East aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, fighting for a country that has given me everything. I just got a call that my dad was taken by ICE. We have done everything through immigration to get his green card approved, and we are just waiting. This is heartbreaking for me. I don't know how I can mentally continue working 12+ hour days knowing that my dad is somewhere, possibly being treated like a criminal."How did the DHS respond? The DHS said Luis Manuel Aviles Roa entered the US illegally and would remain in immigration and customs enforcement detention pending removal proceedings. Having a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation's laws," the DHS said. Continue reading...
The president's border wall plan could damage or destroy the oldest-known books in North America'On an overcast summer morning, Carolyn Boyd, an archeologist at Texas State University, stood at the foot of a cave in west Texas, looking up toward a series of towering murals painted on a rock wall. Three massive human-like figures soared toward an overhang that had sheltered the painting from the elements since they were drawn here perhaps 4,000 years ago.An artist herself, Boyd knows how hard it would have been to paint these long, crisp lines. Before starting, the bands of Indigenous hunter-gatherers who lived in this west Texas valley, where the Pecos River empties into the Rio Grande, would have spent weeks pulverizing gypsum, hematite, limonite and manganese to make paint. They would have gathered massive quantities of sotol stalks to fold its fibers into scaffolding. The painting itself would have required teamwork and precision, with people at the bottom guiding artists on the wall as they painted figures stretching up to 30ft tall. Continue reading...
Trump administration finalized rule to end Medicaid support for care including hormones and speech therapyNew Mexico will continue funding gender-affirming care for minors after a federal rule ending Medicaid support for such care goes into effect.On 13 August, the Trump administration finalized a rule - set to go into effect on 13 October - that will end funding for gender-affirming care through Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (Chip). Continue reading...
A fast-moving Nevada wildfire exploded to more than 15,000 acres (6,000 hectares) on Sunday, pushing from the Sierra foothills toward the centre of Reno and forced nearly 90,000 residents to evacuate as flames threatened neighbourhoods and reached the edge of the University of Nevada campus Continue reading...
Republicans who deny Joe Biden won the 2020 election are running for governor and secretary of state across the USElection deniers are back on the ballot.In most swing states, at least one major Republican candidate has questioned or outright denied the results of the 2020 US presidential election, which Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden. Continue reading...
Civil liberties groups decry plan to use gloves linked to death of Kentucky man allegedly shocked 27 times in county jailPlans to supply Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers with special gloves that can deliver electric shocks have alarmed experts and drawn scrutiny amid some high-profile lawsuits over their use in local correctional facilities.In one extreme case, a 43-year-old man died after allegedly being shocked 40 times by officers with a combination of the gloves and a Taser in a county jail in Kentucky, and the man's widow is suing authorities. Continue reading...
Plans for gloves that can deliver electric shocks underline the homeland security department's sadistic practicesOn 11 August, the Associated Press reported that the Homeland Security Agency will spend up to $20m to equip its agents with gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks to the skin of a person deemed uncooperative. The conductive distraction and de-escalation devices"- branded Glove, for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter - will be supplied by their manufacturer, Compliant Technologies, through a no-bid contract.News of the acquisition inspired the editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes to publish a cartoon of an ICE agent wearing the glove, underneath which are a branding iron, an iron maiden, a rack, and other compliance technologies. AKA, instruments of torture. Continue reading...
by Chris Stein in Marshall, North Carolina on (#77WZB)
The Democratic and the Republican candidate each blame the other for the bungled recovery effort after storm struck regionTwo years after North Carolina suffered the worst natural disaster in its history when Hurricane Helene struck the state's western half, life in the hardest-hit areas appears back to normal. Downtowns are lively, blocked roads have been reopened and rivers are flowing below their banks.But the telltale evidence of the disaster's expensive impacts can still be seen - from for rent" signs in storefronts whose businesses never came back to debris from the storm still lurking in some waterways. And in the race for North Carolina's US Senate seat, it's almost as if the hurricane never left. Continue reading...
The WNBA has attracted grifters who care little for basketball - and whose latest stunt exposes the hollowness of their supposed concernI regret to inform you that yet another dildo has hit a WNBA court. The Chicago Sky v Golden State Valkyries game was sullied by sex toys being chucked on to the playing surface on Friday. Aren't we tired of all this yet? To paraphrase the Sky's Natasha Cloud, it takes a lot of effort to bother with such a juvenile act.This is yet another controversy for the WNBA, a league that up until a few years ago, most media observers ignored. The WNBA is full of incredibly talented players and has a rich history, but most sports fans treated all but ignored it for the majority of its 30-year existence. But when Caitlin Clark went pro, the league surged. Ratings, attendance, and interest exploded. But not all attention is good attention. Continue reading...
Joshua Aviles says he is on a nine-month Middle East deployment and learned his has father has been arrested while he was waiting for green card approvalThe father of a US sailor on board the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier deployed in the Middle East during the Iran war has been taken into federal immigration detention, the sailor said.The border patrol arrested Luis Manuel Aviles Roa, originally from Nicaragua, after conducting a vehicle stop in Key West, Florida, a spokesperson for the US homeland security department said on Sunday. Continue reading...
Lillian Smart of Ruston infected with fatal Naegleria fowleri, likely after swimming in Lake Claiborne, health officials sayAn eight-year-old Louisiana girl has died after contracting a rare, typically fatal brain-eating amoeba after a swim in Lake Claiborne.Lillian Smart, of Ruston, died on Saturday, one day after celebrating her birthday, her family announced in a public Facebook post on the Love for Lillian" page. Continue reading...
Human-caused Hawk fire covers more than 15,000 acres as blaze approaches University of Nevada campus in RenoA fast-moving Nevada wildfire exploded to more than 15,000 acres (6,000 hectares) on Sunday, pushing from the Sierra foothills toward the center of Reno and urging nearly 90,000 residents to evacuate as flames threatened neighborhoods and reached the edge of the University of Nevada campus.The Hawk fire's GO NOW" evacuation zone had expanded to the edge of the university campus as strong, gusty winds, low humidity and dry vegetation fueled the blaze, according to Truckee Meadows Fire and Rescue in Reno. Of those urged to evacuate, 42,000 were under strict orders. An additional 45,000 people were in the evacuation warning zone, and encouraged to leave now and be prepared to stay away for several days to clear the roads for first-responders. Continue reading...
Critics include Senator Chris van Hollen, ex-aide to Obama Tommy Vietor and ex-Republican congressman Adam KinzingerDemocrats and other Donald Trump critics reacted incredulously to a New York Times report on Sunday that House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries met with Jared Kushner, the president's influential son-in-law, to discuss possible areas of collaboration.The reported meeting comes months ahead of the November midterm elections in which Democrats are favored to retake the US House, a development that would make Jeffries speaker. If they are in the majority, Democrats are expected to use their oversight power to aggressively investigate the Trump administration, including self-enrichment by the president and his family. Continue reading...
Republican senator tries to assuage concerns but does not offer details of Graham's national security experienceTim Scott defended fellow US South Carolina Republican senator Darline Graham's knowledge of national security issues ahead of their state's runoff election on Tuesday.Graham, who was appointed to fill the Senate seat held by her brother Lindsey Graham after his sudden death in July, is in a Republican primary runoff against South Carolina congressman Ralph Norman. During a debate between the two on Tuesday night, Graham struggled to answer a question about US national security interests in Taiwan and the South China Sea. Continue reading...
Relatives of woman fatally stabbed on public transit allege death was preventable and Charlotte knew of violent crime issueThe family of Iryna Zarutska is suing Charlotte and a security company one year after the Ukrainian refugee was fatally stabbed onboard a light rail train in the North Carolina city.A lawsuit filed on Friday in Charlotte's Mecklenburg county superior court alleges Zarutska's death was preventable. It also claims the city and the company that provides security for the Charlotte Area Transit System failed to put adequate protections in place despite knowing about violent crime on and around the municipal light rail line. Continue reading...
Devoted Trump aide flooded her now-disabled profile urging people to never concede' on 6 January 2021The Donald Trump aide Natalie Harp flooded a since-disabled social media account with pro-Trump posts on the day that the president's supporters attacked the US Capitol in early 2021, years before she went to work for him and developed an extraordinary close relationship with him, a new report has revealed.CNN on Saturday reported that a deactivated account which Harp had on what is now known as X was packed with fiercely pro-Trump messages on the day of the January 6 Capitol attack in Washington DC, including posts repeating his lies that the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden toward the end of his first presidency, had been stolen from by fraudsters. Continue reading...
Michael Jeffries is ruled mentally competent to stand trial after being hospitalized for months for dementia symptomsThe former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch has been ruled mentally competent to stand trial as he faces sex-trafficking charges after being hospitalized for months for dementia and Alzheimer's symptoms.Michael Jeffries, who is 82 and free on bond for now, is scheduled to be tried in late October, alongside two co-defendants: his partner Matthew Smith and staffer James Jacobson. A pretrial hearing was slated for Thursday. Continue reading...
Abbas Araghchi says country is unbowed but president Masoud Pezeshkian admits its people face many problems'Iran's foreign minister has dismissed the threat of a fresh round of US economic sanctions as a desperate" ploy, even as its president acknowledged that the Iranian people are facing many problems" amid Washington's efforts to isolate and debilitate the country's economy.Last week, Donald Trump announced a new campaign to increase the pressure on the Iranian economy, calling it the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country". The US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, is expected to announce further punitive economic measures on Iran - which he has described as the toughest sanctions in history" - on Monday. Continue reading...
by Associated Press and Guardian staff on (#77WFB)
Woman remains missing more than five days after police found officer she was married to dead in their homeAn arrest warrant has been issued for a mental health advocate who remained missing on Sunday, more than five days after police found the Massachusetts officer she had been married to dead in their home.Karen Solomon, 58, was last spotted in a doorbell camera video, walking down a street in a T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops early Tuesday morning, just minutes after Worcester police officers responded to a call from the home where Kurt Solomon was found dead. Continue reading...
Defense files motion to dismiss state case after federal guilty plea but prosecutors say they are prepared to litigateAfter Luigi Mangione admitted in Manhattan federal court that he killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, most experts believe that the state murder case against is highly unlikely to proceed - though some still see a slim possibility that it may yet happen.Mangione, who pleaded guilty on 14 August to two federal stalking counts, was scheduled for a New York state trial on 8 September for murder and weapons charges in the December 2024 killing. In the wake of Mangione's surprise plea, legal experts said New York's state-level double jeopardy law - which means someone cannot be tried twice for the same crime - could derail his local prosecution. Continue reading...
Even products labeled eco', green' or natural' can contain dangerous compounds including PfasCommon personal care products widely contain unlabeled toxic chemicals, results from a new peer-reviewed study suggest. The testing of more than 110 items ranging from shampoo to baby lotions found evidence of unlabeled toxic chemicals in about 85%.Many contained multiple ingredients known to be carcinogens or health hazards, and even 26% of products labeled eco", green" or natural" contained at least one dangerous compound. The products averaged more than three times as many chemicals than were listed on labels. Continue reading...
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent's attempt to calm bond markets is a sign of weakness not strengthLook, there's nothing magic about that $40tn number," the US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, told CNBC insouciantly last week, as the country's debt mountain surpassed another bleak record.Yet Bessent's decision to intervene in government bond markets in an effort to combat soaring yields belied his studied calm in TV interviews - and reignited fears the US may be on the road to a debt crisis. Continue reading...
President's speech, declassification of documents and heightened claims of noncitizen voting have experts concernedA series of moves by Donald Trump's administration to sow doubt in the integrity of US elections have intensified concern among voting experts - and sparked hope among election deniers - that it could declare a national emergency.The White House and US federal agencies have released a string of documents this summer - including disputed analyses of alleged voting by noncitzens and historical intelligence memos - stoking expectations that the US president could move to exert greater control over November's US midterm elections. Continue reading...
Michigan Senate nominee and others have re-energized one-time Democratic voters who abandoned the party under BidenTwo years ago, Zainab Bibi Ahmed thought she had turned her back on the Democrats for good. Now, she is volunteering for the party's US Senate nominee in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed.Ahmed was one of 100,000 people to vote uncommitted in the February 2024 Democratic Michigan primary, in a bid to send a message to then US president Joe Biden about his support for Israel, as people watched what Amnesty International later called a live-streamed genocide" in Gaza on their screens. Continue reading...
Weather service warns of flooding and mudslides, particularly in areas strongly affected by previous stormTropical Storm Moke is poised to slam into the south of Hawaii's islands, with forecasters predicting heavy rains and strong winds on Saturday evening, just days after the region was hit by Hurricane Lala.As with Hurricane Lala, the Big Island is expected to bear the brunt of Moke's rain and heavy winds as it passes south of a direct hit late on Saturday and into Sunday. Continue reading...
Kassebaum Baker became the first woman elected to the US Senate without following a spouse into officeNancy Kassebaum Baker, a Kansas governor's daughter who became the first woman elected to the US Senate without following a spouse into office, has died. She was 94.Kassebaum Baker died on Friday of natural causes, according to her son, Bill Kassebaum. Continue reading...
PEN America condemns lawyers using passage from thriller to bolster claim ex-FBI director intended to harm TrumpA leading US free-expression group has hit out at federal prosecutors' use of a novel written by former FBI director James Comey in their case accusing him of threatening to kill Donald Trump.Citing a novel to save an indictment that is constitutionally dubious is a desperate Hail Mary and should be rejected," said a statement posted on Friday by Mara Gassmann, legal director of PEN America, using a term for a last-second heave in American football. Continue reading...
33,124 residents still in the dark as utility company says it is working to restore power in north-west of stateThousands of residents of north-west Indiana on Saturday were headed for their 11th day without electric power after storms swept through the state, toppling trees and power lines, earlier in August.The powerless conditions have led to food lines, closed businesses, dead phones, no schools, spoiled food, dirty clothes, dry gas pumps and a multitude of other deleterious effects on life without energy. Continue reading...
Omaha police agreed to stop carrying electric shock gloves in the halls of state's largest public school districtOmaha police recently agreed to stop carrying gloves that can deliver electric shocks to students in the halls of Nebraska's largest public school district.The decision affecting most Omaha middle and high schools came after the Associated Press first revealed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)'s plan to give officers the Gloves" - or generated low output voltage emitters". The devices have also been used in recent years by some jails. Continue reading...
A Democrat's remarks have resulted in impassioned defenses of the Trump aide. The right has discovered misogynyJon Ossoff is quite the miracle worker. Perhaps the Democratic senator can't turn water into wine, but he has managed to turn whining conservatives into impassioned feminists.During a rally last Sunday, the Georgia senator delivered a takedown of Donald Trump, which included a reference to his aide Natalie Harp. He doesn't want to do the job," Ossoff said of the president. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar."Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Latest attack happened amid Islamophobic blowback against Arab and Muslim Americans running for officeNashid Shakir describes how assailants used wire cutters to break into the Westwood Islamic Community Center in the early hours of 3 August.They cut the wire and broke the window to get in. They broke into the office, too. It was total disarray," says Shakir, a board member, and member, at the community center since the 1960s. Continue reading...
New CDC data shows MMR vaccination among kindergarteners declining slightly as non-medical exemptions climb to 4.2%A week after Donald Trump made a series of misleading claims about vaccines - including that some injections look like the size of a soda bottle" - the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the latest data on national kindergarten vaccination rates.CDC communications downplayed the changes - a three-sentence announcement said, overall vaccination rates among kindergarteners remained high" - but medical experts immediately saw cause for concern in the trends. Continue reading...
A call revealing Todd Blanche's plans to crack down on mifepristone lays bare the dangerThe abortion pill is a miracle. Mifepristone, then called RU-486, was synthesized by a French lab in the 1980s; in combination with misoprostol, commonly used as ulcer medication, it cuts off the body's supply of progesterone, halts the development of a pregnancy, and incites contractions, which empty the uterus. The drug allows pregnancies to be terminated with a shocking degree of reliability and ease. Gone are the concoctions of ergot and Spanish Fly dispensed by 19th century midwives, which only sometimes worked to induce a miscarriage; gone are the backroom procedures of the pre-Roe US, when drunk, lascivious, incompetent or cruel providers wielded bent coat hangers in dirty rooms. The abortion pill is safe, effective and cheaper than ever. And since Dobbs, it's everywhere: even if you live in a state with an abortion ban, you can get the pills shipped to your house in the mail. Since Roe was overturned, there has not been a return to the terror of mass death that marked the pre-Roe era of septic abortion wards, where women routinely found themselves maimed, sickened or killed. There's exactly one reason why: because illegal abortions were largely unsafe without the pill, and they are extremely safe with it.So of course, the Trump administration and their allies on the American right are trying to get rid of it. And this month, they gained a powerful new ally when Todd Blanche, Donald Trump's former personal lawyer and an anti-abortion zealot, was confirmed as attorney general. Continue reading...
Thomas Bailey, 58, faces charge of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling near Covington, LouisianaA US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer was jailed on Friday on allegations of breaking into a woman's apartment.Thomas Bailey, 58, faces a charge of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling after his arrest by the sheriff's office of St Tammany parish, Louisiana, the agency said in a statement. Continue reading...
Trump transport chief's YouTube show vowed to celebrate America's story' - it's debatable whether it celebrates anything besides the Duffys themselvesIt would be fair to say that the Trump administration's celebration of the United States's 250th birthday has been unorthodox - involving, as it has, an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event at the White House, a poorly attended state fair, and a car race through Washington, before which the US president will take a lap of honor.On Tuesday, however, Donald Trump officials dropped perhaps their weirdest 250th offering yet: a six-part travel show in which the US secretary of transportation take his entire family on a startlingly self-involved, creatively funded road trip around the country. Continue reading...
As the president tries to extract the US from his Iran war quagmire, leadership in Tehran is only too happy to crush his midterm dreamsIn the aftermath of his devastating election defeat, the US president remained haunted by regrets over Iran.Months before Jimmy Carter lost the 1980 presidential election to Ronald Reagan, eight US servicemen died in a botched high-risk rescue mission that failed to secure the freedom of dozens of US hostages seized in Tehran. Continue reading...
MLS wants to build on the momentum of the World Cup. America's top domestic cup competition is an obvious place to startThe new commissioner of Major League Soccer, Larry Berg, isn't keen on the idea of promotion and relegation, but he is a fan of jeopardy. When asked the obligatory pro/rel question in his introductory press conference, Berg responded, I don't think it's appropriate for our league, but I think there are other ways to create jeopardy during the regular season, [and] again in the playoffs."He referred to this summer's World Cup, which was co-hosted by the US, and the excitement it provided, adding, Millions of people across North America experienced that passion firsthand. They fell in love with the drama, the atmosphere, the supporter culture and the emotion that makes soccer unlike anything else. In the World Cup, we all enjoyed knockout games after the group stage. I call those games of consequence or games of jeopardy." Continue reading...
Rule would require states to provide federal government with information on voters in return for delivering ballotsThe US Postal Service prepared to publish a final rule late on Friday to impose new requirements on states to provide the federal government with information on voters before the November midterm congressional elections, despite a pair of court orders that currently block the changes from taking effect.The USPS acknowledged in the text of the final rule posted online Friday, which is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register next week, that two injunctions issued by federal courts in California and Massachusetts currently bar it from moving ahead with the changes to comply with a March executive order signed by Donald Trump. Continue reading...
US news | The Guardian