1 of 2 boys shot in Fla. home dies
ORLANDO, Fla. — One of two boys shot Monday in their family’s Sanford, Fla, home has died, police say.
Branden Christian, 8, was injured in the shooting that also killed his mother, Latina Herring, 35, and critically wounded his brother, grandfather and two others, according to Sanford police.
His younger brother, Brendon, who police said is 7 years old, remained in critical condition Tuesday morning at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children. Their grandfather and Mr. Herring’s father, Bertis Gerard Herring Jr., also was in critical condition, police said. Two other victims, who appeared to be random bystanders, remained in stable condition.
Allen Dion Cashe, 31, was arrested not long after the shooting and is being held in the Seminole County Jail in Sanford without bail.
Officers also found two people at school bus stop a few blocks away with gunshot wounds. Winter Springs High School student Rakeya Jackson, 18, and Lazaro Paredesquelite, 43, were listed in stable condition Monday afternoon.
Lack of sprinklers
OAKLAND, Calif. — Inspectors discovered that a building in a rundown neighborhood lacked fire extinguishers, smoke detectors in every apartment and a working sprinkler system just three days before a blaze erupted and killed four lowincome residents.
Officials uncovered multiple fire code violations during an inspection Friday and ordered the owner of the Oakland building to immediately fix the fire alarm and sprinkler systems. Residents complained they didn’t hear alarms, feel sprinklers or see fire extinguishers early Monday as they fled flames tearing through the three-story building that housed some 80 recovering drug addicts and former homeless people.
The fire broke out nearly four months after a warehouse called the Ghost Ship caught fire and killed 36 people attending an unlicensed concert about 5 miles away.
Opioid sales questioned
WASHINGTON — Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is seeking marketing information, sales records and studies from manufacturers of the top-selling opioid products in the United States to determine whether drugmakers including Mylan have contributed to an overuse of the pain killers. She said that sales of prescription opioids have quadrupled since 1999, taking a financial toll on the government and a deadly toll on thousands of consumers.
Ms. McCaskill said previous government and media reports show an industry not focused on preventing abuse but on fostering addiction. She is investigating whether such practices continue today.
More than 52,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2015, and roughly twothirds of them had used prescription opioids like OxyContin or Vicodin or illegal drugs like heroin, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those overdoses have jumped 33 percent in the past five years alone, with some states reporting the death toll had doubled or more.
Wells Fargo to pay $110M
NEW YORK — Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $110 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over up to 2 million accounts its employees opened for customers without getting their permission, the bank announced Tuesday.
It’s the first private settlement that Wells has reached since the company paid $185 million to federal and California authorities late last year. Authorities said bank employees, driven by high-pressure sales tactics, opened the bank and credit card accounts without customer authorization.
The settlement is subject to court approval.
Wells also disclosed Tuesday that a federal regulator had downgraded its rating under a law designed to help monitor and promote banking practices to low-income and minority communities. The move means restrictions on Wells’ business, including opening more branches or making acquisitions.
Top court rejects Texas
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that Texas’ method for evaluating mental disability in deathrow inmates was a violation of the Constitution’s prohibition of “cruel and unusual punishment.”
The court ordered Texas to use modern medical standards, rather than the criteria the state currently use, which are based on medical standards from 1992, to determine whether death row inmates are fit to be executed. The inmate in question — Bobby Moore, who has been on death row for more than 36 years — will have his case sent back to Texas’ highest criminal court for re-evaluation.
Also in the nation ...
Two Miami-Dade police undercover detectives working a gang detail in Miami’s Brownsville neighborhood were shot as they sat in their unmarked vehicle Monday night by suspects who walked past them, opened fire and fled. ... The operator of a Cincinnati nightclub where 1 person was killed and 16 others were injured in a shooting says the venue will close its doors for good on Friday.