Driver Plows into crowd at Pride Parade; ONE dead

WILTON MANORS, FLA.»A driver slammed into spectators Saturday evening at the start of a Pride parade in South Florida, killing one person and seriously injuring another, authorities said

The pickup driver acted like he was part of the Wilton Manors Stonewall Pride Parade but suddenly accelerated when he was told he was next, crashing into the victims, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said, according to WSVN-TV. Wilton Manors is just north of Fort Lauderdale.

Authorities said one of the victims later succumbed to injuries. The other victim was hospitalized.

The driver of the pickup truck was taken into custody.

Authorities did not immediately give further details about the victims or say whether they think the crash was intentional.

Trantalis said he believes the crash was “deliberate” and an attack against the LGBTQ community.

Driver rams bicyclists in race, critically injuring six.

SHOW LOW, ARIZ.»A driver in a pickup plowed into bicyclists during a community road race Saturday, critically injuring several riders before police chased the driver and shot him outside a hardware store, authorities said.

Six people were taken to a hospital in critical condition after the crash in the mountain town of Show Low, about a three-hour drive northeast of Phoenix, police said. Helmets, shoes and crumpled and broken bicycles were strewn across the street after the crash, and a tire was wedged into the grill of the truck, which had damage to its top and sides and a bullet hole in a window.

Two other people went to a hospital themselves, city spokeswoman Grace Payne said, and one of the severely injured was flown by medical helicopter to a Phoenix-area hospital.

The suspect, a 35-yearold man, was hospitalized in critical but stable condition.

“We don’t know the motivation,” Payne said. “We know he fled the scene.”

Police said a Ford pickup struck the bicyclists about 7:25 a.m. in downtown Show Low during the annual 58-mile Bike the Bluff race, then fled. Officers pursued the driver and tried to stop him before he was shot, authorities said.

editor of newspaper that endured newsroom shooting says goodbye.

ANNAPOLIS, MD.» The editor of the Capital Gazette, which won a special Pulitzer Prize citation for its coverage and courage in the face of a massacre in its newsroom, is leaving the Maryland newspaper.

Rick Hutzell, who worked at the Annapolis paper for more than three decades, wrote a farewell column that was published on the paper’s website Saturday.

Hutzell said he took a buyout that was offered by the newspaper’s parent company. The Capital Gazette was owned by Tribune Publishing until it was purchased last month by hedge fund Alden Global Capital.

Hutzell was editor of the paper when five employees were shot to death in the newsroom in 2018.

Pope’s silence speaks volumes on controversial Communion vote by U.s. bishops. VATICAN CITY» Pope Francis on Saturday put a founder of the European Union on the track to sainthood, told Roman deacons to take care of the poor and met with a top prelate who once defended him against wild allegations by the Vatican’s former ambassador to the U.S.

But the most telling thing he did was stay quiet about the vote by U.S. Roman Catholic bishops to move ahead — despite the warning of the pope’s top doctrinal official — with the drafting of new guidance that conservatives hope will deny Communion to President Joe

Biden for his support of abortion rights.

The pope said nothing, church officials and experts said, because there is nothing else to say.

The divergence of the conservative American church from Francis’ agenda is now so apparent as to become unremarkable, and Vatican officials and experts said Saturday the pope’s silence underlined just how unsurprising the U.S. vote Friday was to the Vatican.

The American bishops conference has flouted an explicit letter from the Vatican in May urging it to avoid the vote. It has disregarded years of the pope’s pleas to de-emphasize culture war issues and expand the scope of its mission to climate change, migration and poverty.

The bishops voted by a large majority to begin drafting guidance on the sacrament of the Eucharist. It could become a vehicle for conservative leaders in the U.S. church to push for denying Communion to Catholics politicians who support abortion rights.