NATION & WORLD BRIEFS
Kennedy threatens legal action after 5th protection denial
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. threatened to sue the Department of Homeland Security after being denied Secret Service protection for the fifth time.
In a March 29 letter posted to X, Kennedy’s attorney said the department was “ignoring the real risks” to the candidate, including an event attendee who carried two loaded handguns, and withholding protection because Kennedy is challenging President Joe Biden.
The Secret Service began protecting presidential and vice presidential candidates after the 1968 assassination of Kennedy’s father. Criteria for independent and third-party candidates include polling at 20% in the Real Clear Politics national average for 30 days, according to the Secret Service website. Kennedy was polling at around 11% Thursday.
The Homeland Security secretary also has “broad discretion” in determining which candidates qualify, the website says.
Michigan health sites to offer free gun locks for residents
DETROIT – Gun locks will soon be available free to the public at local health department offices in Michigan as part of a new program by the Michigan State Police and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
The locks are to be given out at MDHHS county offices and many local health departments statewide to help Michiganders comply with a new secure gun storage law that went into effect in February.
The law now requires all unattended firearms to be unloaded and locked with a locking device or stored in a locked box or safe if a child could have access to it. Anyone who fails to properly lock a gun that a child later uses to injure themselves or another person can be charged with a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $7,500.
If an unsecured gun is used by a child to kill another person or themselves, the owner can be charged with a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $10,000.
Police say astrologer suspected of eclipse day double murder-suicide
A Los Angeles woman who police say fatally stabbed her partner before throwing her two children out of her moving car was an astrologer who posted days earlier that the eclipse is “a form of spiritual warfare” and “the apocalypse is here.”
Danielle Johnson, 34, who went by the alias “Danielle Ayoka” online and described herself as an astrologer, was responsible for what authorities say was a “double-murder suicide” hours before the eclipse became visible in the area.
Investigators are not looking at the eclipse as a possible motive for the crimes, said Los Angeles Police Lt. Guy Golan. “Unfortunately, both parties are no longer with us, and that makes uncovering the facts of the motive problematic,” he wrote of Johnson and her partner, Jaelen Chaney, 29. Investigators will continue to interview friends, families and witnesses in an attempt to piece together events, he added.
UN: Nearly 55 million people face hunger in West, Central Africa
DAKAR, Senegal – Soaring prices have helped fuel a food crisis in West and Central Africa, where nearly 55 million people will struggle to feed themselves in the coming months, United Nations humanitarian agencies warned Friday.
The number of people facing hunger during the June-August lean season has quadrupled over the last five years, they said, noting that economic challenges such as double-digit inflation and stagnating local production had become major drivers of the crisis, beyond recurrent conflicts in the region.