NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
No charges: The special prosecutor appointed to investigate allegations that former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman physically abused women said Thursday that she has closed the case without bringing criminal charges. Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said investigators did an “exhaustive review” and she personally interviewed each woman who had accused Schneiderman of assault. Investigators also spoke with members of Schneiderman’s security detail. She concluded that statutes of limitations and other “legal impediments” made it impossible to charge Schneiderman. Schneiderman, a Democrat, resigned from office in May hours after The New Yorker published an expose saying that four women had accused him of slapping or choking them. Some of the women said Schneiderman was a heavy drinker.
Captain indicted: Charges have been filed against the captain of a Missouri tourist boat that sank and killed 17 people, including nine people from an Indiana family. A federal indictment released Thursday charges 51-year-old Kenneth Scott McKee with 17 counts of misconduct, negligence or inattention to duty by a ship’s officer, resulting in death. The deaths occurred July 19 when an amphibious vessel known as a duck boat sank on Table Rock Lake near Branson after a sudden and severe storm rolled into southwest Missouri. The indictment alleges McKee didn’t properly assess the weather.
Russia probe: Protesters converged in cities nationwide to call for the protection of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into potential coordination between Russia and President Trump’s campaign. Several hundred demonstrators gathered Thursday in New York’s Times Square and chanted slogans including “Hands off Mueller” and “Nobody’s above the law.” Crowds also turned out in Chicago; Greensboro, N.C.; Chattanooga, Tenn., and many other places. Organizers say the naming of acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker is a “deliberate attempt to obstruct the special counsel’s investigation.” Whitaker has criticized Mueller’s probe.
Yoga craze: A new report by the National Institutes of Health says more adults — and even kids — are practicing yoga and meditation. The Bethesda, Md.-based government agency found 14 percent of adults said they had recently done yoga, and the same percentage had recently meditated. That’s up from about 10 percent and 4 percent from a similar survey done five years earlier. For kids ages 4 through 17, about 8 percent had recently done yoga, up from 3 percent. For meditation, it was about 6 percent, similar to the earlier survey. Experts say yoga, meditation and some other forms of complementary medicine have been increasingly promoted as ways to reduce stress and anxiety and improve health.