Arkansas
Federal court rejects 12-week abortion ban
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A federal appeals court has struck down parts of an Arkansas law that sought to ban most abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the viability standard the law cites is becoming more difficult to use because of advances in technology.
The appeals court noted the viability standard was once 28 weeks, but in the Arkansas case was generally considered 24 weeks.
Arkansas lawmakers approved the ban in 2013, after considering a doctor's ability to detect a heartbeat, not the ability of the fetus to survive. A federal judge in Little Rock struck down the law before it took effect, but left in place parts of the law that required doctors to tell women if a fetal heartbeat was present.
Montana
Third grade field trip canceled after legal threats
GLENDIVE, Mont. (AP) - Third-graders in eastern Montana were unable to go on a field trip to a local creationist museum after an advocacy group called the event a violation of the constitutional separation of church and state.
Lincoln Elementary students were unable to visit the Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum after a Washington, D.C.-based group, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, sent a letter claiming the event was illegal, the Billings Gazette reports.
The letter said that courts have "consistently and unequivocally held that religious views on the origins of life, such as creationism, 'creation science,' and 'intelligent design,' cannot lawfully be advanced by the public schools as alternatives to the scientific theory of evolution."
The museum is the second largest dinosaur museum in the state and the only one to assert a literal, biblical view of world history in which humans and dinosaurs coexisted. A reconstruction of Noah's Ark sits alongside full animal skeletons and fossils sit next to signs about God and the biblical flood.
"I don't think there's any way that children can enter that building without receiving the creationist message," Alex Luchenitser, the advocacy group's legal director, said of the Glendive museum.
The trip has been held for the past several years. Lincoln Elementary Principal John Larsen said the museum's perspective was different from what kids are exposed to in school and noted that the tour given to students is an edited "secular" version of the typical tour and does not promote religious ideas.
"This presents an alternative idea to what kids are going to hear throughout the curriculum. I guess, personally, I'm OK with that," Larsen said.
The museum's founder and director, Otis E. Kline Jr., said the public school tours are modified to focus on material evidence, not religious teaching, but he does not yield in his belief that fossils and geologic records point to ideas such as the notion that all animal species appeared at once or that life is too complex to develop by chance.
"If evolution makes a claim and the claim is refuted by science, then I have no problem saying that, because that's the truth," Kilne said. "We don't make things up here."
Texas
Man sentenced in death of woman who called 911
DALLAS (AP) - Jurors have sentenced a Dallas man to 85 years in prison for the murder of his ex-wife, who was attacked as a 911 operator listened.
A Dallas County jury deliberated for about two hours Tuesday before determining the sentence for 38-year-old Delvecchio Patrick.
Patrick was found guilty last week of murder in the death of Deanna Cook at her home in August 2012. He could have received up to life in prison.
Patrick must serve 30 years before becoming eligible for parole.
Police say Patrick was attacking Cook when she called 911 with her cellphone, but the operator didn't get an address. It took about nine minutes to find Cook's address, after which officers went to Cook's home. They saw nothing and got no answer to a telephone call. Two days later, her family found her body.
Tennessee
State to buy land where bodies were buried
BARTLETT, Tenn. (AP) - A troubled Memphis-area cemetery may soon expand to include land where officials say former owner Jemar Lambert illegally buried bodies on property not owned by the cemetery.
According to documents filed with Davidson County Chancery Court on Tuesday, The Commercial Appeal reports state officials and the owner of the adjacent land surrounding Galilee Memorial Gardens have agreed to transfer the property for a nominal $10 amount.
Davidson County Chancellor Carol McCoy, who has presided over the case, must approve the sale.
The filing comes a day after thousands of relatives were allowed onto Galilee's grounds for the first time since Lambert was arrested in January 2014 and charged with mishandling bodies.
Lambert reached a plea agreement in March and is serving a sentence of 10 years' probation.
Washington, D.C.
Suspect's father calls slaying of four 'heartless'
WASHINGTON (AP) - The father of the man charged in the slayings of four people at a Washington mansion calls the crime "egregious and heartless."
The Washington Post reports that Dennis Wint said in a statement Tuesday that it pains him that his son, Daron, is charged, but he doesn't discuss his son's guilt or innocence.
Daron Wint is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Savvas, Amy and Philip Savopoulos and housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa. Authorities say in court papers that they believe others were involved. Wint is the only person charged currently.
Dennis Wint says his family and friends grieve the "tragic and senseless loss" but they didn't know the victims. He also says "we hope that whoever committed these heinous crimes - my son included - will suffer the consequences of their actions."
Published: Thu, May 28, 2015
