Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
After Supreme Court ruling, Satanic Temple asks Boston to fly flag
BOSTON — The Satanic Temple is requesting to fly a flag over Boston City Hall after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that the city violated the free speech rights of a conservative activist seeking to fly a Christian flag outside the downtown building.
The Salem-based group tweeted a copy of a request to the city property management department submitted Tuesday to raise a flag marking “Satanic Appreciation Week” July 23-29.
Mayor Michelle Wu’s office declined to comment on the group’s request other than to say it’s reviewing the high court’s decision while also evaluating its flag-raising program.
Lucien Greaves, the organization’s co-founder, said in an email Wednesday that the group wants to show that religious liberty must mean respect for “all forms” of religious practice and religious opinion.
The organization hasn’t decided which of its official flags it will ask the city to fly, Greaves said, but one likely option echoes the American flag, only with black and white stripes and an emblem of a pentagram and goat skull where the 50 stars would be.
The Satanic Temple is separate from the Church of Satan, which was founded in the 1960s. Founded in 2013, the Satanic Temple doesn’t believe in Satan and describes itself as a “non-theistic religious organization” that advocates for secularism.
It has lodged freedom of religion challenges nationwide, including a federal lawsuit arguing the Boston City Council’s traditional opening prayer at its public meetings is discriminatory and unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that Boston discriminated against activist Harold Shurtleff because of his “religious viewpoint,” even though it had routinely approved other flag-raising requests.
In 2017, Shurtleff and his Camp Constitution wanted to fly a white banner with a red cross on a blue background called the Christian flag to mark Constitution Day on Sept. 17.
Jan. 6 investigation:
The oldest son of former President Donald Trump has met with the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The interview with Donald Trump Jr. took place Tuesday. The two people who confirmed the interview insisted on anonymity.
Trump Jr. is one of nearly 1,000 witnesses the committee has interviewed as it works to compile a record of the attack. He is the second of Trump’s children known to speak to the committee after his sister Ivanka Trump sat down with lawmakers for eight hours in early April.
Trump Jr. was seen backstage at the rally on the White House Ellipse that took place shortly before Trump supporters marched to the Capitol and breached the building.
In social media videos posted at the time of the attack, Trump Jr. was seen with his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and other members of his family as his father prepared to speak to the crowd.
NM wildfire:
With flames marching across wide swaths of northeastern New Mexico’s tinder-dry forests, firefighters were taking a stand Wednesday in their fight against the largest wildfire burning in the U.S. to keep it from pushing any closer to the town of Las Vegas and other villages scattered along the fire’s shifting fronts.
Bulldozers for the last couple of days have been scraping fire lines on the outskirts of Las Vegas, a town of roughly 13,000 people located about 70 miles east of Santa Fe, while crews have been conducting burns to clear vegetation along the dozer lines.
Numerous fire engines and crews remained stationed Wednesday on the western edge of town.
The fire grew overnight to 250 square miles with containment stuck at 20% of its perimeter. In one area, the fire was about a mile away from Las Vegas on Wednesday.
But the real concern were the wind gusts of 60 mph or more that were expected to sweep over the area this weekend.
New Mexico has been hammered by waves of hot, dry and windy weather.
Chappelle attacked:
Comedian Dave Chappelle was tackled during a performance at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday night. Security guards chased and overpowered the attacker, and Chappelle was able to continue his performance while the man was taken away in an ambulance.
The assailant was carrying a replica handgun with a blade inside, authorities said.
Isaiah Lee, 23, was detained and arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, said Alba Mendez, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson.
Lee was treated by medical staff for an unspecified injury and was booked into the Hollywood Division jail at 3:36 a.m. Wednesday and held in lieu of $30,000 bail, Mendez said. It was not immediately known if he had retained a lawyer.
Chappelle was performing his standup routine at the amphitheater as part of the “Netflix Is a Joke” festival at the time of the attack.
North Korean missile:
North Korea launched a ballistic missile toward its eastern waters Wednesday, South Korean and Japanese officials said.
The North’s 14th round of firing weapons in 2022 came days after leader Kim Jong Un vowed to speed up the development of his nuclear weapons “at the fastest possible pace” and threatened to use them against rivals.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the missile was fired from the North’s capital region and flew to the waters off its eastern coast.
It called North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile launches “a grave threat” that would undermine international peace and security and a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions banning any ballistic launch by the North.
Japan also detected the North Korean launch and quickly condemned it.
Sinn Fein seeks win:
If opinion polls are correct, an election Thursday will see Sinn Fein, an Irish nationalist party that seeks union with Ireland, become the largest group in the 90-seat Northern Ireland Assembly.
That would give Sinn Fein the post of first minister in the Belfast government for the first time.
It would also be a milestone for a party long linked to the Irish Republican Army, a paramilitary group that used bombs and bullets to try to take Northern Ireland out of U.K. rule during decades of violence — in which the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary, as well as Protestant Loyalist paramilitaries, were also strongly involved.
And it would bring Sinn Fein’s ultimate goal of a united Ireland a step closer.
But it’s not what the party — or voters — want to talk about in a campaign that has been dominated by more immediate worries: long waiting lists for medical care and the soaring cost of food and fuel.