NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
➊ Lennon’s assassin: The man who gunned down John Lennon outside his Manhattan apartment in 1980 was denied parole for an 11th time, state corrections officials said Wednesday. Mark David Chapman was denied after being interviewed by a parole board Aug. 19, according to corrections officials. Chapman, 65, is serving a 20yearstolife sentence at Wende Correctional Facility, east of Buffalo. Chapman shot and killed the former Beatle hours after Lennon autographed an album for him. He has said previously that he feels “more and more shame” every year for the crime. Chapman’s next parole hearing is in 2022.
➊ Missing soldier: The body of a missing soldier is believed to have been found about 30 miles from Fort Hood, the Army base in Texas where he was stationed, police said Tuesday. Identification found with the body in Temple, Texas, indicates the man may be missing Fort Hood soldier Sgt. Elder Fernandes, according to local police. Forensic confirmation is pending. Fernandes is the third soldier from Fort Hood to go missing in the past year, and two have been found dead this summer. Foul play is not suspected, police said, but the investigation is ongoing.
➊ Found alive: An attorney for the family of a young woman found breathing at a Detroit funeral home after being declared dead said this week the 20yearold was in a body bag for some two hours before she was discovered alive, with her eyes open. Geoffrey Fieger, who was hired by Timesha Beauchamp’s family, said she remains in critical condition at SinaiGrace Hospital in Detroit, where she is on a respirator. Fieger said he’s investigating at the family’s request what he called the “negligence” that led to Timesha being declared dead Sunday morning at the family’s suburban Detroit home, only to be discovered to be alive after she arrived at the funeral home.
➊ Terror case: A former Minnesota college student pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal charge that she tried to help al Qaeda. Tnuza Jamal Hassan, 22, of Minneapolis, pleaded guilty in U.S District Court to attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. When Hassan was stopped from flying to Afghanistan in September 2017, prosecutors said she told FBI agents that she wanted to join al Qaeda and marry a fighter, and that she might even wear a suicide belt. Four months later, Hassan was arrested for allegedly setting fires on her former college campus in St. Paul in what prosecutors called a selfproclaimed act of jihad. No one was hurt in the fires at St. Catherine University.
➊ Flint water: The federal government can be sued for negligence in the Flint water crisis, a judge said Wednesday, citing the failure of regulators to blow the whistle on lead in the water. The decision comes days after the state of Michigan said it will pay $600 million to settle a raft of lawsuits by Flint residents over decisions by GOP Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency didn’t cause water to be contaminated with lead, but it knew about high lead levels and didn’t crack down in time, U.S. District Judge Judith Levy said.