NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
➊ Trump pays respects: President Trump paid respects to late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Thursday, just two days before he announces his nominee to replace her on the high court. The president and first lady Melania Trump — both wearing masks — stood silently at the top of the steps of the court and looked down at Ginsburg’s flagdraped coffin. The death of the liberalleaning justice has sparked a controversy over the balance of the court just weeks before the November election. Moments after he arrived, some booing could be heard from spectators who then briefly chanted, “Vote him out!”
➋ House explosion: A girl was killed and her parents and brother were injured when their home in Oklahoma City exploded Thursday morning, fire officials said. The ages of the girl or her brother were not immediately released, but both are younger than 18, according to District Fire Chief Benny Fulkerson. The boy and the parents were taken to a hospital with burn injuries in undisclosed condition, Fulkerson said. No names were released. The explosion does not appear intentional, Fulkerson said. The explosion destroyed the home while also damaging at least three nearby houses. The cause wasn’t known, but Fulkerson said the home used propane, not natural gas.
➌ U.S. executes 1st Black inmate since restart: A man who killed a religious couple visiting Texas from Iowa was executed Thursday, the first Black inmate put to death as part of the Trump administration’s resumption of federal executions. Christopher Vialva, 40, was pronounced dead after a lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. Vialva was the seventh federal execution since July and the second this week. Five of the first six were white, a move critics argue was a political calculation to avoid uproar. The sixth was Navajo.
➍ Swastika hamlet: The rural upstate New York hamlet of Swastika is keeping its name, despite a complaint that it symbolizes the hate and intolerance of the Nazi regime. The unincorporated crossroads in the Adirondack Mountain town of Black Brook, about 35 miles south of the U.S.Canada border, has been known as Swastika for more than a century. But town council members considered a name change after a visitor from New York City said it was offensive, especially to the memory of World War II veterans. Black Brook supervisor Jon Douglass told NPR the council did not see a reason for a name change despite its use as a symbol of hate. The name comes from the Sanskrit word meaning wellbeing.
➎ “Naked ballots”: Democrats are launching a digital ad targeting Pennsylvanians voting by mail to explain how to correctly fill out and return the ballots, hoping to avert worried predictions that 100,000 votes or more could be invalidated because the ballots aren’t put in the proper envelope. The socalled naked ballots have become a huge concern for the state’s Democrats since the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled last week that ballots had to be rejected if not enclosed in the proper secrecy envelope. The ruling was a victory for the Trump campaign.