National Roundup

Florida
Court revelation: Club gunman’s dad was FBI informant
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Lawyers for the widow of the Pulse nightclub shooter say they’ve only just been told that the attacker’s father was an FBI informant for 11 years.

Lawyers for Noor Salman are asking for a mistrial, saying this information should have been disclosed earlier by prosecutors.

Salman is accused of helping her husband, Omar Mateen, plan the June 2016 attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, where he killed 49 people.

Her lawyers’ federal court motion filed Monday says prosecutors contacted them Saturday night and told them about Seddique Mateen’s relationship with the FBI.

Salman is standing trial on accusations of aiding her husband in the attack against the gay nightclub in Florida.

Missouri
Anheuser-Busch heir accused of assault at son’s sports practice
CREVE COEUR, Mo. (AP) — Police say Anheuser-Busch heir William Busch has been cited with assault after intervening in an altercation between his son and a fellow sixth-grader at a basketball practice in suburban St. Louis.

Police said in a news release Saturday that 58-year-old Busch allegedly grabbed the 11-year-old student and pushed him into a wall in November at the gym at Chaminade College Preparatory School in Creve Coeur.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that other adults separated Busch and the child. Police say the child told investigators he wasn’t injured.

Busch received a summons for fourth-degree assault, a municipal ordinance violation.

Busch’s attorney, Scott Rosenblum, says Busch intervened after school personnel failed to react when his son was “bullied — actually sucker-punched — by a much larger middle school student.”


Florida
Woman hit with baseball bat in road rage attack
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida woman says she suffered a broken nose when she was attacked by two sisters with a baseball bat during a road rage incident.

Mikaela Barboza tells the Miami Herald she cut off another driver on Thursday near Fort Lauderdale. The other driver and her sister, who was in another car, began yelling at her. Barboza says she pulled into a nearby parking lot because she was worried for her safety. She called 911 when the women followed her and blocked in her car.

She says she started recording on her cellphone as the women approached. They got into a tussle and one of the women hit Barboza with a metal bat.

The women left before deputies arrived.

In hindsight, Barboza says she should have stayed in the car.

Louisiana
Man with machete tried to kidnap kids at Walmart
KENNER, La. (AP) — Police in Louisiana say a stranger with a machete tried to snatch two children from their mothers inside a Walmart.

Kenner police describe the case in a Facebook post. They say 33-year-old Billy Yoe Budier-Herrera tried to take a 2-year-old boy from her mother’s grocery cart, at one point both of them pulling the child. She prevailed but the man then ran through the store, swinging the machete at employees who tried to intervene.

Police say he then spotted another mother with a baby strapped into the child seat of a grocery cart, and was trying to remove the infant when store employees tackled him. Budier-Herrara is charged with two counts of kidnapping of a child and other offenses. It’s unclear if he has a lawyer.

Massachusetts
Winner take all? Not if Electoral College critics win court cases
BOSTON (AP) — Critics of the winner-take-all system used by 48 states to assign their Electoral College votes are hoping to have the practice ruled unconstitutional.

They took their first step last month by filing federal lawsuits in four states, arguing that the practice of assigning all of a state’s Electoral College votes to the winner of a state’s popular vote runs counter to the principle of one person, one vote.

The group behind the initiative, the League of United Latin American Citizens, said a state’s Electoral College votes should instead be assigned to candidates based on a proportional system.

They ultimately hope the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the case.

Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin said any change should be the result of a national conversation, not a lawsuit.

Arkansas
Lawyer claims right to carry gun in courtroom
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas lawyer is claiming his right to carry a gun in state courthouses after being restricted from bringing his firearm into a courtroom.

The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that Benton County sheriff’s deputies in December prohibited attorney W. Whitfield Hyman from carrying his gun into a courthouse. Hyman sent letters to five counties questioning his right to carry his weapon in court, but says he didn’t receive a response that agreed with his opinion.

Hyman argues that the statute covering possession of deadly weapons in publicly owned buildings and facilities was amended to allow officers of the court to carry firearms in courtrooms. He says the Arkansas Judiciary sets the duties for lawyers as “officers of the court.”

Oregon
Couple working on psychedelic ballot initiative
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon couple is pushing to legalize and regulate the therapeutic use of psilocybin — a psychoactive compound found in so-called “magic” mushrooms — as an effective treatment for people suffering from cancer-related anxiety, depression and addiction.

The Register-Guard reports Tom and Sheri Eckert are working with Oregon Legislative Counsel attorneys on the language of a potential statewide ballot initiative they’re hoping to put before voters in 2020.

They’ve also launched a statewide tour to publicly discuss the plan with various groups.

The Eckerts’ plan would allow adults to participate in a series of sessions at a state-licensed “psilocybin service center” with a trained and registered “facilitator.”

The Eckerts expect the ballot title process will be completed by July, when they expect to begin gathering the tens of thousands of valid signatures needed to qualify the measure for the ballot in 2020.