High court to decide on travel ban
Compiled from news services
WASHINGTON— The Supreme Court said Friday it will decide whether President Donald Trump’s responsibility to protect the nation grants him authority to ban travelers from specific countries and that it will rule by June in the case, a major examination of the president’s powers.
The court will consider the third iteration of Mr. Trump’s travel ban, issued last fall, which bars various travelers from eight countries, six of them with Muslim majorities.
Lower courts have struck down each version, but the conservative-leaning Supreme Court has given the administration hope that Mr. Trump may be able to carry out one of the most significant and divisive initiatives of his presidency.
Petty accidentally OD’d
LOSANGELES — Rocker Tom Petty died last year from “multisystem organ failure” caused by accidental drug toxicity, the Los Angeles County coroner said Friday.
An autopsy found drugs in Mr. Petty’s system, including fentanyl, oxycodone, temazepam, alprazolam, citalopram, acetylfentanyl and despropionyl fentanyl, the agency said.
Mr. Petty, 66, was found unconscious at his Malibu home and was taken to a hospital in full cardiac arrest. He died Oct. 2.
Menendez to be retried
The Justice Department plans to put Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., back on trial on corruption charges, according to a new court filing Friday, following a mistrial last year in which most jurors wanted to acquit him.
The trial in Newark federal court of Mr. Menendez and his co-defendant, Salomon Melgen, ended in a hung jury in November. When he came back to the Senate in December, Mr. Menendez said he doubted prosecutors would pursue the case, but if they did, he added: “bring it on.”
On Friday, public corruption prosecutors from the Justice Department filed notice in federal court saying they want a retrial.
Women to march
WASHINGTON— The 2018 Women’s March in Washington will move forward as planned on Saturday despite a looming government shutdown.
An estimated 5,500 marchers will gather at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool at 11 a.m. for speeches before traveling along Constitution Avenue and to the White House gates to advocate for women’s inclusion in the political process.
The Reflecting Pool is maintained by the National Park Service, a branch of the Department of the Interior.
Death penalty sought
CHICAGO— Federal prosecutors announced Friday they will seek the death penalty for a former University of Illinois graduate student accused of kidnapping, torturing and killing a visiting scholar from China in June.
In making the announcement, prosecutors alleged for the first time that Brendt Christensen “choked and sexually assaulted” another victim in 2013 in the Champaign-Urbana area and that he has claimed other victims.
Mr. Christensen, 28, who is being held without bond, had tentatively been set to go to trial Feb. 27 in federal court in Urbana on a charge of kidnapping resulting in a death stemming from the disappearance of Yingying Zhang, 26, whose body has not been found.