NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
_1 Homeland chief: President Trump said Tuesday he will nominate acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf to the top spot in the agency. The president made the announcement on Twitter, praising Wolf ’s leadership of an agency that plays a major role in the key Trump administration policy areas of immigration and crime. Wolf has been a vocal advocate of a decision to use DHS to protect federal property and monuments following the protests that erupted over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. That included the deployment of federal agents to protect the courthouse in Portland, Ore.
_2 Falwell resigns: Jerry Falwell Jr. said Tuesday that he has resigned as head of evangelical Liberty University because of ongoing controversies about his wife’s sexual involvement with a younger business partner and in the wake of a social media photo that caused an uproar. Falwell’s exit marks a precipitous fall from power for one of the country’s most visible evangelical leaders and ardent supporters of President Trump. The Lynchburg, Va., university was founded by Falwell’s late father, the Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr.
_3 Parkland shooter: Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz won’t be going to trial this year, even on the off chance that courts reopen for felony jury trials. Lawyers for the gunman who shot and killed 17 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day 2018 told Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer that there’s no way they can be ready in time to start picking a jury within the next four months. Cruz, 21, has admitted to the shootings and has offered to plead guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in exchange for a life sentence. But prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, and a mental health evaluation is crucial to convince a jury to spare Cruz’s life.
_4 Clemency petition: The only Native American man on federal Death Row is asking a judge to halt his execution until he receives a determination on his clemency petition from the Justice Department and President Trump. Lezmond Mitchell’s lawyers are seeking to delay his execution, which is currently scheduled for Wednesday in Terre Haute, Ind. The Navajo government has been asking officials to spare his life on the basis of sovereignty. In 2001, Mitchell and a codefendant stabbed a 63yearold Navajo woman to death on Navajo land and slit the throat of her 9yearold granddaughter. Under federal law, Native American tribes can decide whether they want their citizens subjected to the death penalty for crimes on tribal land. _5 Bottle message: A kayaker who discovered a message in a bottle in a Delaware river was able to reunite the letter with the woman who wrote it 35 years ago. When Brad Wachsmuth fished out the bottle some 2 miles offshore of the Broadkill River, he found the letter written by Cathi Riddle and her cousin, Stacey Wells, dated Aug. 1, 1985. It described their family pets and asked future readers if they had any of their own, among other childhood musings. Riddle still lived just miles away in Milton, where Wachsmuth was able to return the letter to her.