VISITING THE PANTHEON
Utah bans abortion clinics in wave of post-roe restrictions
SALT LAKE CITY – Utah’s Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed legislation Wednesday that will by next year ban clinics from providing abortions, setting off a rush of confusion among clinics, hospitals and prospective patients in the deeply Republican state.
Administrators from hospitals and clinics have not publicly detailed their plans to adapt to the new law, adding a layer of uncertainty on top of fear that, if clinics close, patients may not be able to access care at hospitals because of a variety of staffing and cost concerns.
Prosecutor: Black man smothered to death at Virginia hospital
DINWIDDIE, Va. – Security camera footage from a state mental hospital shows a Black Virginia man who was handcuffed and shackled being pinned down by the deputies who are now facing second-degree murder charges in his death, a prosecutor said in court.
Tourists queue Thursday to visit the Pantheon in Rome. Visitors will soon be charged a 5-euro fee to enter Italy’s most-visited cultural site, under an agreement signed Thursday by Italian culture and church officials.
Dinwiddie County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill said during the seven deputies’ first court hearing Wednesday that Irvo Otieno was smothered to death, local news outlets reported.
The officers had no justification for putting Otieno, who was being checked in, on the floor, Baskervill said. The prosecutor said Otieno did not appear combative and was sitting in a chair before being pulled to the floor by the officers, the Richmond Times-dispatch reported.
It was a “demonstration of power that was unlawful,” the prosecutor said, according to the newspaper.
Otieno’s family was expected to view video of the events that preceded his death on Thursday, according to a news release from his attorneys, Mark Krudys and Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney known for representing victims in police brutality cases.
Arizona governor blasted for plans to defy execution order
PHOENIX – Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is being criticized by a victim’s sister and a powerful county prosecutor for her plans to defy a court order to execute a prisoner next month for his conviction in a 2002 killing. The newly elected Democratic governor vowed nearly two weeks ago that she wouldn’t carry out the Arizona Supreme Court’s order to execute Aaron Gunches on April 6, citing a review that she has ordered of death penalty protocols due to Arizona’s history of mismanaging executions.
Hobbs has said executions will not be carried out until Arizonans can be confident the state isn’t violating the law. She maintains that while the court authorized Gunches’ execution, its order doesn’t require the state to carry it out.
Nicholas Klingerman, an attorney, said no constitutional violations have been found with the state’s execution protocols and that carrying out execution warrants isn’t optional for the governor.
“Nothing in the Constitution or laws of Arizona or the warrant gives the governor discretion to ignore the warrant and grant what essentially constitutes a temporary reprieve from the death penalty,” Klingerman wrote.
NTSB: Wing parts from air ambulance fell far from wreckage
LAS VEGAS – A new federal report says parts of the right wing on a medical transport plane that crashed last month in rural Nevada, killing all five people aboard, fell far from the main wreckage site.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary findings released Wednesday could support the agency’s initial theory that the aircraft had broken apart before hitting the ground. NTSB is expected to release its final report within two years.
The agency says parts of the plane’s right wing were located as far as threequarters of a mile from where the single-engine Pilatus PC12 crashed in Stagecoach, Nevada.
Guardian Flight said in a statement Wednesday it was reviewing the report and assessing ways to strengthen its safety protocols.
Several killed in mysterious northern Iraq helicopter crash
DOHUK, Iraq – A mysterious helicopter crash in northern Iraq has killed at least five people, allegedly including militants belonging to an outlawed Kurdish insurgency group, according to statements Thursday from the Iraqi Kurdish-run counterterrorism agency and the region’s president.
The AS350 Eurocopter crashed in the district of Chamanke in Dohuk province in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region on Wednesday night, the counterterrorism agency said in a statement posted on social media.
At least five passengers were killed, said Lawk Ghafuri, spokesperson for the Kurdish region’s President Nechirvan Barzani.