NEWS OF THE DAY From Across the Nation
1 New press secretary: Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary, is rejoining the staff of first lady Melania Trump and Kayleigh McEnany, a campaign spokeswoman, will replace her — the latest shakeup in a communications office that has been seen almost constant turnover under President Trump. McEnany has been a vocal defender of Trump on TV, the main role the president has long believed the press secretary should play, according to current and former advisers. Grisham, who never held a press briefing in her ninemonth tenure as the president’s spokeswoman, will become Melania Trump’s chief of staff.
2 Epstein estate: Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise N. Rogers declared in court filings Tuesday that she is at an impasse with the estate of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and asked that a Superior Court judge intervene and end the protection of the late sex offender’s associates. Rogers earlier this year brought a civil enforcement action against the Epstein estate, later adding and labeling as coconspirators two longtime Epstein attorneys — Richard Kahn and Darren K. Indyke — who in his will updated shortly before his jail cell death by apparent suicide last Aug. 10 were named executors of the estate.
3 Megachurch leader: The criminal case against a Mexican megachurch leader on charges of child rape and human trafficking was dismissed Tuesday by a California appeals court on procedural grounds. Naason Joaquin Garcia, the selfproclaimed apostle of La Luz del Mundo, has been in custody since June. He is being held without bail in Los Angeles. The appeals court ruling states that the Los Angeles County Superior Court must dismiss the 29 counts of felony charges that range from human trafficking and production of child pornography to forcible rape of a minor.
4 1976 slaying: A judge has ordered DNA testing on a hat left at the scene of a fatal 1976 shooting that an Iowa inmate hopes will prove he has been wrongly imprisoned for decades. Judge John Wright ordered the orange hunting cap shipped to a laboratory for testing that could show whether Gentric Hicks or someone else was responsible for the killing at a Fort Madison, Iowa, motel. Scientists will seek to extract genetic material from inside the cap to create a DNA profile that could be compared to Hicks. Iowa has never had an inmate exonerated by DNA evidence. Hicks, 73, is serving life for the slaying of 28yearold Jerry Foster at the Hill Crest Motel, owned by Foster’s parents.
Flight attendants: Some 100 American Airlines flight attendants have tested positive for COVID19, a number union leaders say is likely to increase, according to a message to members from the Euless, Texasbased Association of Professional Flight Attendants. That’s still fewer than 1% of the 25,000 flight attendants at American Airlines, but companies including air carriers have been quiet about how many employees have contracted the virus. American Airlines did confirm that one flight attendant in Philadelphia, Paul Frishkorn, has died from the virus.
Chronicle News Services