US appeals court refuses to end CDC’s eviction moratorium
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Friday said a pause on evictions designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus can remain in place for now, setting up a battle before the nation’s highest court.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected a bid by Alabama and Georgia landlords to block the eviction moratorium reinstated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month.
The landlords plan to immediately file an emergency motion to the Supreme Court, said National Association of Realtors spokesman Patrick Newton.
“With a majority of the Supreme Court in agreement that any further extension of this eviction moratorium requires congressional authorization, we are confident and hopeful for a quick resolution,” he said in a statement.
In a short written decision, the panel said the appeals court had rejected a similar bid and a lower court also declined to overturn the moratorium.
“In view of that decision and on the record before us, we likewise deny the emergency motion directed to this court,” the judges said.
The moratorium is scheduled to expire Oct. 3.
Britain shooting: A 22-yearold man who fatally shot five people in southwestern England earlier this month had his confiscated shotgun and gun license returned to him after he completed a program that aims to keep offenders out of the British criminal justice system, a police watchdog said Friday.
Police have said that Jake Davison killed his mother and four other people, including a 3-year-old girl, before taking his own life in the port city of Plymouth on Aug. 12. It was Britain’s first mass shooting in over a decade.
He started participating in the voluntary Pathfinder program, an alternative to being charged or given an official caution, after admitting to assaulting two youths in a Plymouth park in September 2020.
His shotgun and license to own it were confiscated in December while he was taking part in the program and given back to him July 9 following a review by firearms licensers, a police investigation found.
Virus outbreak: The U.S. government on Friday extended a ban on nonessential travel along the borders with Canada and Mexico to slow the spread of COVID19 despite increasing pressure to lift the restriction.
U.S. border communities that are dependent on shoppers from Mexico and Canada and their political representatives have urged the Biden administration to lift the ban. In addition, Canada recently began letting fully vaccinated U.S. citizens enter the country.
But the Department of Homeland Security said in a tweet Friday that the restrictions on nonessential travel were still needed to minimize the spread of COVID19 and the delta variant. It extended the ban until at least Sept. 21.
Gray wolves protection:
President Joe Biden’s administration is sticking by the decision under former President Donald Trump to lift protections for gray wolves across most of the U.S. But a top federal wildlife
official on Friday told Associated Press there is growing concern over aggressive wolf hunting seasons adopted for the predators in the western Great Lakes and northern Rocky Mountains.
Wolves under federal protection made a remarkable rebound in parts of the U.S. over the past several decades, after being driven from the landscape by excessive hunting and trapping in the early 1900s.
On Friday, attorneys for the administration asked a federal judge in California to reject a lawsuit from wildlife advocates that seeks to restore protections, signaling the conclusion of Biden’s promise on his first day in office to review the Trump move.
But wolf management policies in place at the state level have shifted dramatically since protections were lifted, and Frazer suggested the federal government could take steps to restore protections if population declines put wolves back on
the path to extinction.
Capitol bomb threat: A man who claimed he had a bomb in a pickup truck near the U.S. Capitol, prompting evacuations and an hourslong standoff with police, told a federal judge Friday he has not taken his “mind medication” and was ordered to undergo a mental competency hearing.
Floyd Ray Roseberry appeared before a federal magistrate judge in Washington and was charged with threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to use an explosive device. If convicted, he could face a sentence of up to life in prison.
Roseberry, 49, of Grover, North Carolina, drove a black pickup truck onto the sidewalk outside the Library of Congress around 9:15 a.m. Thursday and began shouting to people in the street that he had a bomb. He later made the same bomb threats to police officers and professed a litany of antigovernment
grievances as part of a bizarre episode that he livestreamed to Facebook.
Roseberry surrendered after about five hours. Police later said they did not find a bomb but did collect possible bomb-making materials.
Greece wildfires: Firefighters have contained a major wildfire that ravaged a pine forest and burned homes near the Greek capital, the minister for citizens’ protection said Friday night, adding that a prosecutor for organized crime cases was involved in the investigation of this summer’s major fires in Greece.
Hundreds of wildfires have burned across the country this month, including massive blazes that have taken days to bring under control. Tens of thousands of hectares of forest and farmland, as well as hundreds of homes and businesses, have been destroyed and thousands of residents have been forced to flee. One volunteer firefighter has died, and at
least four more have been injured.
Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis said the prosecutor was “already cooperating closely and regularly” with the fire department and the police “for the in-depth investigation of the causes of all the large fires which have broken out this year.”
A major fire burning near the village of Vilia, about 37 miles northwest of Athens, since Monday was now under control, Chrisochoidis said, adding that firefighting forces remained in the area to ensure there were no flare-ups.
By Friday evening 461 firefighters, including 143 from Poland, 166 vehicles, 10 water-dropping planes and 18 helicopters were fighting the blaze, the fire department said.
It said 41 new wildfires broke out in the 24 hours between Thursday evening and Friday evening, with most being tackled and extinguished in their early stages.