Iowa reporter goes on trial over arrest while covering protest
IOWA CITY, Iowa — A journalist went on trial Monday on charges stemming from her coverage of a protest against racial injustice in Des Moines last year, after Iowaprosecutors defied international pressure to drop a rare effort to punish a working reporter.
Des Moines Register news reporter Andrea Sahouri, whowaspepper-sprayed and jailed while reporting on a clash between protesters and police in May, is charged with failure to disperse and interference with official acts.
If convicted on the simple misdemeanor charges, the 25-year-old Sahouri would be fined hundreds of dollars andhave a criminal record. A judge could also sentence her up to 30 days in jail on each count, although that would be unusual.
Advocates for journalism and human rights in the U.S. and abroad have pressed Iowa authorities to drop the charges, arguing that Sahouri was simply doing her job by documenting the event. But prosecutors in the office of Polk County Attorney John Sarcone have pressed forward with the case against Sahouri and her former boyfriend, Spenser Robnett, who faces the same charges.
The pair are standing trial in a courtroom at Drake University in Des Moines as part of a program for law students. The university is broadcasting the proceedings, which are expected to last two days.
Lawyers selected a six-member jury Monday morning, and prosecutors began their case in the afternoon.
Rights suit revived: The U.S. Supreme Court is reviving a lawsuit brought by a Georgia college student whosued school officials after being prevented from distributing Christian literature on campus.
The high court sided 8-1 with the student, Chike Uzuegbunam, and against Georgia Gwinnett College.
Uzuegbunam has since graduated, and the public school in Lawrenceville, Georgia, has changed its policies. Lower courts said the case was moot, but the Supreme Court disagreed.
Groups across the political spectrum including the American Civil Liberties Union had said that the case is important to ensuring that people whose constitutional rights were violated can continue their cases even when governments reverse the policies they were challenging.
At issue was whether Uzuegbunam’s case could continue because he was only seeking so-called nominal damages of $1.
“This case asks whetheran award of nominal damages by itself can redress a past injury. We hold that it can,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for a majority of the court.
Writing only for himself, Chief Justice John Roberts disagreed.
Roberts argued that the case brought by Uzuegbunam and another student, Joseph Bradford, is moot since the two are no longer students at the college, the restrictions no longer exist and they “have not alleged actual damages.”
No reelection bid: Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri said Monday that he will not seek reelection, making him the fifth Republican in the Senate to bow out rather than seek another term in a party searching for direction after President Donald Trump.
Blunt, who turned 71 in January, was expected to seek a third term in 2022. Before election to the Senate, he served seven terms in the U.S. House. He also served two terms as Missouri’s secretary of state from 1985 to 1993.
“In every job Missourians have allowed meto have, I’ve tried to do my best,” Blunt said in his announcement made via video. “In almost 12,000 votes in the Congress, I’m sure I wasn’t right every time, but you really make that decision based on the information you have at the time.”
Blunt is the No. 4in Senate Republican leadership.
The five Senate Republicans not seeking reelection could set up contested primaries highlighting divisions between far-right, Trump-aligned Republicans and the old guard of the party.
Theothersare Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Rob Portmanof Ohio, Richard Shelby of Alabama and Richard Burr of North Carolina.
Lebanon economic crisis: Lebanon’s army chief warned Monday that soldiers are hurting from the severe economic crisis engulfing the country, voicing rare criticism from the military of a ruling class that has done little to try and resolve a monthslong political deadlock.
Gen. Joseph Aoun’s comments came as protesters, angry with Lebanon’s political class, blocked major roads leading to the capital for the seventh consecutive day.
The protests come against the backdrop of a crash in the local currency, an increase of consumer goods prices and political bickering between rival groups that has delayed the formation of a new government.
Lebanon’s currency has lost 85% of its value in the past year and a half.
In a rare statement, Aoun said the financial and economic crisis is hurting soldiers whose salaries have lost value, adding that “members of the military are suffering and getting hungry like the rest of the people.”
Positive tests in Syria: President Bashar Assad and his wife have tested positive for the coronavirus, the president’s office said Monday, with both having only mild symptoms of the illness.
In a statement, Assad’s office said the first couple did PCR tests after they experienced minor symptoms consistent with the COVID19 illness.
It said Assad, 55, and his wife Asma, 45, who announced her recovery from breast cancer in 2019, will continue to work from home, where they will isolate for two or three weeks.
Syria, which marks 10 years of war next week, has recorded nearly 16,000 virus cases in government-held parts of the country, including 1,063 deaths. But the numbers are believed to be much higher.
Colorado party violence: Authorities have fielded hundreds of tips involving a massive weekend gathering near the University of Colorado at Boulder in which participants damaged cars, set off fireworks, and tossed bottles and rocks at police, slightly injuring three officers, officials said Monday.
Boulder County health authorities, meanwhile, warned of a possible surge in coronavirus cases because of the Saturday night melee in which as many as 800 people — few wearing masks — flooded streets in a neighborhood known as University Hill, home to many university students as well as residents.
No arrests had been made, but Boulder police and other police agencies had received more than 700 tips, including photos and cellphone video of the violence, according to police spokeswoman Dionne Waugh.