NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
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First African Americans: The first Africans to arrive in North America were so little noted by history that many are known today by only their first names: Antony and Isabella, Angelo, Frances and Peter. Almost 400 years ago, they were kidnapped and forcibly sailed across the ocean aboard three slave ships — the San Juan Bautista, the White Lion and the Treasurer — and then sold into bondage in Virginia. Now their descendants, along with historians and genealogists, are seeking recognition for a group of 20some Africans they describe as critical to the survival of the Jamestown settlement.
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Nurse’s error: A spokesman for the district attorney’s office in Davidson County, Tenn., said prosecutors have filed criminal charges against a former hospital nurse accused of mistakenly killing a patient. Spokesman Steve Hayslip said former nurse Radonda Leanne Vaught is charged with reckless homicide because she allegedly overrode safeguards at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services investigated the 2017 death. Its report says the nurse was trying to find the drug Versed in the electronic cabinet when she used an override to unlock stronger medications and selected the first drug under ‘VE,” which was the execution drug vecuronium.
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Officer killed: Police collected evidence at a Milwaukee home on Thursday where a police officer was fatally shot while serving a warrant. Officers have cordoned off part of the residential neighborhood where 35-yearold Officer Matthew Rittner was killed Wednesday. The 17-year police veteran was shot while serving a search warrant on a man suspected of illegally selling firearms and drugs. Investigators say a 26-year-old suspect fired several rounds and was later arrested. Ritter is the third Milwaukee police officer killed on the job in the past eight months.
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Cosby in prison: Bill Cosby has been moved to the general population but hasn’t had any visits from family four months after arriving at a Pennsylvania state prison outside Philadelphia. Cosby, who is legally blind, has been moved out of special housing where he spent time getting acclimated, a prison spokeswoman said. He still has inmates assigned to help him throughout the day, given his age and disability. Cosby, 81, is serving a three- to 10-year term for drugging and molesting a woman in 2004.
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Fraud accusation: The boyfriend of a Russian woman who admitted she was a secret agent for the Kremlin has been charged with fraud in South Dakota, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday. Businessman and conservative political operative Paul Erickson, 56, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to 11 counts of wire fraud and money laundering, a day after he was indicted, according to the South Dakota U.S. Attorney’s Office. He faces up to 20 years in prison for each count. The charges appear unrelated to the case of Maria Butina, 30, who pleaded guilty in December for trying to infiltrate conservative political groups.