D.C. METRO WORKERS OK STRIKE
WASHINGTON» A longsimmering dispute between Washington’s Metro administration and its largest union has publicly escalated into threats of a strike just as thousands of tourists arrive in the nation’s capital for Tuesday’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
Members of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, which represents around 8,000 of 12,500 active workers, overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike.
Striking is forbidden under Metro’s bargaining agreement with the union, but even a brief interruption could cause commuting chaos, particularly as thousands of visitors try to get to the All-Star game events. The transit system carries about 1 million people a day; any shutdown could potentially hinder the functioning of the federal government.
Fox is 9th casualty after jaguar’s weekend escape at zoo.
NEW
ORLEANS» A little girl’s teary-eyed self-portrait, stuffed toys and a stick of taffy from a local street vendor, were among the items left at the entrance to the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans on Monday — a makeshift memorial for nine animals killed by a jaguar that escaped its enclosure two days prior.
Zoo officials announced the ninth animal death Monday: a wounded fox named Rusty.
Pianist’s wife not guilty by reason of insanity in 2 deaths.
FORTH WORTH,
» A Texas judge TEXAS has found the estranged wife of concert pianist Vadym Kholodenko not guilty by reason of insanity in the 2016 deaths of the couple’s two daughters.
Judge Ruben Gonzalez in Fort Worth on Monday then ordered Sofya Tsygankova, who was charged with capital murder, committed to a state mental hospital. The defense and prosecutors agreed with the ruling.
2 CVS workers lose jobs after cops called on black customer.
CHICAGO»
CVS Health says two Chicago store employees are out of their jobs just days after a black customer complained that white managers called police after accusing her of trying to use a phony coupon.
The company said Monday it had completed a review of the Friday night incident. The company says the two staffers involved are no longer employed.
Chicago activist demands all footage from police shooting.
CHICAGO»
A community activist who has pushed for more police transparency said Monday that he’s asked Chicago police for the body camera footage from all the officers at the scene where one of them fatally shot a black man over the weekend.
William Calloway said a brief video released by police showing the view from one officer’s body camera does not answer crucial questions, starting with the reasons the officers approached 37-year-old Harith Augustus on Saturday afternoon just before he was shot. Calloway also said that a police spokesman’s explanation that Augustus was “exhibiting characteristics of an armed person” does not justify stopping someone in a city and state where it is legal to carry a concealed weapon.
Man convicted of hate crime, arson in Texas mosque torching.
TEXAS» A man VICTORIA, accused of torching a South Texas mosque last year has been convicted of federal arson and explosives charges and of a hate crime charge.
A jury in Victoria, Texas, deliberated about three hours before finding 26-year-old Marq Vincent Perez guilty.
Prosecutor Sharad Khandelwal said during the trial that a “rabid hatred” of Muslims led Perez to set fire last year to an Islamic center in Victoria, destroying the building. Another prosecutor asserted that Perez aimed to terrorize the Muslim community in the middle Texas Gulf Coast area and to cause damage and destruction.
Perez, who denied involvement in the blaze, could be sentenced to up to 40 years in prison.