Nation & World Glance
Judge clears way for Trump to appeal ruling keeping Fani Willis on Georgia 2020 election case
ATLANTA – The judge overseeing the Georgia 2020 election interference case cleared the way Wednesday for Donald Trump and other defendants to appeal a ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to remain on the prosecution.
Superior Court Judge Scott Mcafee’s ruling means defense attorneys can ask the Georgia Court of Appeals to review the judge’s decision not to disqualify Willis or dismiss the indictment over her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade. It will be up to the appeals court to decide whether to hear the matter.
The judge said he would continue working to get the case ready for trial by addressing other matters in the meantime.
But while Willis had made clear her determination to turn the page from weeks of embarrassing headlines, the judge’s decision to green-light the appeal allows defense attorneys to keep at the forefront allegations of impropriety that threaten to damage the public’s perception of the prosecution.
Mcafee last week said Willis can remain on the most sprawling of four criminal cases against the former president as long as Wade resigns, which Wade did on Friday.
Idaho police search for
escaped inmate and accomplice after ambush
at Boise hospital
A white supremacist Idaho prison gang member and an accomplice remained on the loose Wednesday after the accomplice staged a brazen overnight attack to free the inmate as he was being transported from a Boise hospital, police said.
Police identified the man suspected of shooting two corrections officers during the ambush as Nicholas Umphenour. A warrant with a $2 million bond has been issued for his arrest on two charges of aggravated battery against law enforcement and one charge of aiding and abetting an escape, police said.
Police said the search continues for Umphenour and escaped inmate Skylar Meade, who fled the hospital early Wednesday in a gray 2020 Honda Civic with Idaho plates. It’s not known where they are or where they are headed, police said.
Three corrections officers were shot and wounded – two allegedly by Umphenour and one by responding police – during the attack in the ambulance bay at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center.
Officials described Meade, 31, as a white supremacist gang member. Meade was sentenced to 20 years in 2017 for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a high-speed chase.
Mississippi ex-deputy gets 40-year sentence as judge decries brutal attack on 2 Black men
JACKSON, Miss. – Two former Mississippi deputies wept in court Wednesday as a federal judge sentenced them to years in prison and condemned their cruelty for breaking into a home with four other white officers and torturing two Black men.
U.S. District Judge Tom Lee sentenced Christian Dedmon, 29, to 40 years in prison and Daniel Opdyke, 28, to 17.5 years.
Lee said Dedmon carried out the most “shocking, brutal and cruel attacks imaginable” against the two Black men, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, and against a white man during a traffic stop weeks earlier.
Dedmon did not look at Jenkins and Parker as he apologized Wednesday, saying he’d never forgive himself for the pain he caused.
Jenkins, who has trouble speaking after being shot in the mouth during the January 2023 attack, said in a statement read by his lawyer that Dedmon’s actions were the most depraved of any of those who attacked him.
Alabama governor signs bill barring diversity, equity and inclusion programs
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Wednesday signed legislation that would ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs at public schools, universities and state agencies and prohibit the teaching of “divisive concepts” including that someone should feel guilty because of their race or gender.
The measure, which takes effect Oct. 1, is part of a wave of proposals from Republican lawmakers across the country taking aim at diversity, equity and inclusion programs, also known as DEI, on college campuses. Republicans say the programs deepen divisions and promote a particular political viewpoint. But opponents say it is a rollback of hard-won advances and programs that welcome underrepresented student populations.
“My administration has and will continue to value Alabama’s rich diversity, however, I refuse to allow a few bad actors on college campuses – or wherever else for that matter – to go under the acronym of DEI, using taxpayer funds, to push their liberal political movement counter to what the majority of Alabamians believe,” Ivey said in a statement.
Gangs target peaceful communities in new round of attacks on Haiti’s capital
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Armed gangs launched new attacks in the suburbs of Port-au-prince early Wednesday, with heavy gunfire echoing across once-peaceful communities near the Haitian capital.
Associated Press journalists reported seeing at least five bodies in and around the suburbs, and gangs blocked the entrances to some areas.
People in the communities under fire called radio stations pleading for help from Haiti’s national police force, which remains understaffed and outmatched by the gangs.
By Wednesday afternoon, another victim had been reported: a police officer killed in broad daylight in a Port-au-prince neighborhood known as Delmas 72, according to the SYNAPOHA police union.
As the attacks continued, the U.S. State Department announced Wednesday that it had completed its first evacuation of American citizens from Port-auprince.