National News - Page 53

HBCU Student’s Traffic Stop Sparks Outrage and Action

An HBCU student and band member is at the center of a growing national conversation after the release of body camera footage from a February traffic stop in Jacksonville, Florida. William McNeil Jr., a biology major at Livingstone College, was reportedly assaulted by officers from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office during a stop on February 19. His case has sparked outrage across the HBCU community and beyond. Prosecutors have declined to file charges against the officers, according to the Washington Post. “That day, I just really wanted to know why I was getting pulled over, and why I needed to step out

Gabbard Accuses Obama of Faking Russia-Trump Intel

By Dan De Luce President Donald Trump’s top intelligence official appeared in the White House briefing room Wednesday to level allegations no U.S. spy chief has ever made against a former president or administration. National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard accused former President Barack Obama and his deputies of manufacturing a “false” intelligence analysis to show Russia tried to help Donald Trump win the 2016 election. Obama and former officials in his administration have dismissed the allegations as baseless. “These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,” Obama spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush said. Democrats have accused the administration of trying

Harvard, Trump Admin Clash Over $2B in Federal Funding

By Kimmy Yam, John Moroney, and Alysha Palumbo The Trump administration and Harvard University on Monday traded barbs in a critical hearing in Boston over the government’s threats to slash billions of dollars to the Ivy League school’s federal research funding. Harvard accused the Trump administration of violating its First Amendment rights by freezing the funds to exercise authority over the school. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice argued that funding cuts are a means to protect against antisemitism, an issue that the DOJ claims Harvard had failed to appropriately address, violating the rights of its Jewish students. Both parties had sought a summary judgement

Speaker Johnson Faces GOP Rift Over Epstein File Release

By Stephen Groves House Speaker Mike Johnson is rebuffing pressure to act on the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, instead sending members home early for a month-long break from Washington after the week’s legislative agenda was upended by Republican members who are clamoring for a vote. Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, said Tuesday morning that he wants to give the White House “space” to release the Epstein information on its own, despite the bipartisan push for legislation that aims to force the release of more documents. “There’s no purpose for the Congress to push an administration to do something they’re already doing,” Johnson said

FBI Releases 240K MLK Files Amid Family, SCLC Opposition

The Trump administration has released records of the FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr., despite opposition from the slain Nobel laureate’s family and the civil rights group that he led until his 1968 assassination. The release involves more than 240,000 pages of records that had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI first gathered the records and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration. King’s family, including his two living children, Martin III, 67, and Bernice, 62, were given advance notice of the release and had their own teams reviewing the records ahead of the public

Ex-Officer Sentenced for Breonna Taylor Raid Shooting

By Patrick Smith, Marlene Lenthang and Tim Stelloh The Kentucky police officer who blindly fired 10 bullets into Breonna Taylor’s home in 2020 during a botched raid has been sentenced to nearly three years, her family’s lawyer said Monday. Former Louisville Metro Police Department detective Brett Hankison was sentenced to 33 months Monday after he was convicted of deprivation of rights under color of law in November in connection with the raid that killed Taylor, attorney Lonita Baker said. Hankison will serve three years of probation after his prison term ends, Baker said. Last week, the Justice Department said Hankison should be sentenced to a single day

Congress Preserves PEPFAR Funding in Budget Cuts Deal

By Scott Wong and Sahil Kapur  PEPFAR, the popular global HIV/AIDS program credited with saving millions of lives, has been spared from a package of billions of dollars in spending cuts that Congress sent to President Donald Trump early Friday morning to sign into law. The original rescissions package Trump requested called for $400 million in cuts to PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which George W. Bush started in 2003. But in the Senate, Democrats and a handful of Republicans objected to the PEPFAR cuts. Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said the health program had saved an estimated 26 million lives

Trump Sues WSJ for $10B Over Epstein Letter Report

By Chloe Atkins and Zoë Richards President Donald Trump on Friday took legal action less than 24 hours after The Wall Street Journal published an article saying Trump sent a letter to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 that included a drawing of a naked woman. The lawsuit, which seeks at least $10 billion in damages and a jury trial, names the Journal’s parent company, News Corp.; its publisher, Dow Jones; two reporters for the newspaper; News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch; and chief executive Robert Thomson as the defendants. “We have just filed a POWERHOUSE Lawsuit against everyone involved in publishing the false, malicious, defamatory, FAKE NEWS ‘article’ in

Coach Confronts ICE Agents to Protect Youth Baseball Team

By Rosie Colosi What would you do if ICE agents approached the kids on your youth sports team at practice? Youman Wilder, the founder of Harlem Baseball Hitting Academy, said that he found himself in that exact position. And he didn’t hesitate. “I heard them saying, ‘Where are you from? Where are your parents from?’” Wilder told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace. “And I just stepped in and said this is very inappropriate to ask these kids anything … I’m just going to have them implement their Fifth Amendment right, and not say anything to you.’” He said that one of the agents responded,

DOJ Seeks No Prison for Cop in Breonna Taylor Raid

By Ryan J. Reilly The Justice Department is seeking no prison time for a former officer who blindly shot into Breonna Taylor’s home during a botched 2020 raid that sparked a federal inquiry into policing in Louisville, Kentucky. Brett Hankison, a former Louisville Metro Police Department detective whose shots did not strike Taylor, was convicted of deprivation of rights under color of law in November. Federal prosecutors said he fired 10 shots through a window and a sliding glass door that were covered with blinds and curtains. Multiple bullets traveled through the wall and into an apartment next door but did not hit anyone. The officers

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