Court of Appeals says no liability for cop in rough arrest of woman
MELVINDALE (AP) — A Detroit-area police officer who had an intense physical struggle with a motorist before firing his Taser has been cleared of liability by the Michigan Court of Appeals.
The court, in a 2-1 ruling, overturned a decision by a judge who wanted to send the lawsuit to trial. The appeals court says Mathew Furman’s use of force didn’t add up to “gross negligence.”
Trinity Henderson was stopped by Furman in Melvindale in 2015. The officer subsequently learned that Henderson’s driver’s license was suspended and that she was driving an unregistered vehicle.
Furman pulled Henderson from the car after she refused to step out. Video shows the struggle moving to the police car where Henderson latched herself to the vehicle.
Judges Patrick Meter and Amy Ronayne Krause say Furman was “reacting to a belligerent, defiant, threatening” person.
Justices to consider reinstating military rape convictions
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will decide whether to reinstate convictions for rape by a military officer and two enlisted men.
The issue is whether they could be prosecuted long after the rapes occurred.
A military appeals court threw out the convictions because too much time had elapsed between the assaults and the prosecutions, but the justices recently agreed to reconsider those rulings.
The cases involve women who for differing reasons initially decided not to press charges but later changed their minds.
The crimes all were committed before 2006. The Uniform Code of Military Justice has been changed so that there is no statute of limitations on rape charges.
Alaska students raise the ukulele to orchestral proportions
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The most prominent sign of the growing popularity of ukuleles among Anchorage students is East High School’s orchestra dedicated to the short-necked relative of the guitar.
The Anchorage School District has seen a wave of aspiring student musicians who want to pluck the small, four-stringed instruments, The Anchorage Daily News reported.
The number of students enrolled in ukulele class at the school has surpassed those in guitar class, while the orchestra includes concert ukuleles, tenor ukuleles, baritone, bass and electric ukuleles, teacher Kiel Schweizer said.
Reasons for the student attraction to ukuleles include affordability, portability and ease of play and their popularity on YouTube, Schweizer said.
“Some of these kids come from households where they only speak Hmong, or only speak Hawaiian,” Schweizer said, “but they all know Justin Bieber.”
The instrument is embedded in the Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander culture of 15 percent of the school’s student population of about 1,750.
Schweizer started the school district’s program in 2005 at Nunaka Valley Elementary School.
After moving to East High, he founded a ukulele club and in 2014 he began teaching a class after writing a curriculum and working with administrators.
There are now about 70 ukulele students at East High, compared to 50 guitar students, while 169 high school students across the district are enrolled in a ukulele class this year, up from 124 last year.
“This has been the year the ukuleles took over,” Schweizer said.
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