News of the Day From Across the Nation
In a 60-second commercial released Tuesday, film director Spike Lee, who has spent his career making films about race and discrimination, may help Sen. Bernie Sanders as he struggles to cut into Hillary Clinton’s support from black voters.
For too long we have given our vote to corporate puppets, he says, echoing Sanders’ crusade against a rigged economy.
“Ninety-nine percent of Americans were hurt by the great recession of 2008, and many are still recovering,” Lee says in the ad.
2 “Black Sunday” compensation: A jury awarded $183 million to five firefighters or their families in a case stemming from a 2005 tenement blaze on a day known as “Black Sunday.”
Two firefighters were killed in the Jan. 23, 2005, Bronx fire.
3 Conviction in fetus theft: A Colorado woman who prosecutors said was obsessed with having a baby and concocted elaborate lies to convince those close to her that she was pregnant was convicted Tuesday of cutting a nearly 8-month-old fetus from a stranger’s womb.
The case against Dynel Lane, 36, who lured Michelle Wilkins to her home with a Craigslist ad for maternity clothes, attracted international attention and reignited a national debate over the legal rights of fetuses.
Several top leaders from Warren Jeffs’ polygamous sect were arrested Tuesday on federal accusations of food stamp fraud and money laundering — marking one of the biggest crackdowns on the group in years.
The charges are the government’s latest move targeting the sect based on the Utah-Arizona border, coinciding with legal battles in two states over child labor and discrimination against nonbelievers.
Antonin Scalia suffered from coronary artery disease, obesity and diabetes, among other ailments that probably contributed to the justice’s sudden death, according to a letter from the Supreme Court’s doctor.
Texas Presidio County District Attorney Rod Ponton cited the letter Tuesday when he told reporters that there was nothing suspicious about the Feb. 13 death of the 79-year-old jurist.
In the letter, the doctor listed more than a half-dozen ailments, including sleep apnea, degenerative joint disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and high blood pressure.
