National Roundup

Washington
Obama signs bill striking offensive terms from laws
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal laws will no longer include outdated and offensive terms used to describe minority groups.

President Barack Obama signed a bill striking the several terms, including “Negro” and “Oriental” on Friday, the White House said.

Those terms will be replaced with “African American” and “Asian American.”

The bill removing the terms passed the House in February and the Senate last week. No one in either chamber objected.

The language targeted by the bill had appeared in laws dating to the 1970s that attempted to define minorities.

In the Department of Energy Organization Act the phrases “a Negro, Puerto Rican, American Indian, Eskimo, Oriental, or Aleut or is a Spanish speaking individual of Spanish descent” will be replaced with “Asian American, Native Hawaiian, a Pacific Islander, African American, Hispanic, Puerto Rican, Native American, or an Alaska Native.”

Maryland
Police: Human trafficking charge for school teacher
BALTIMORE (AP) — Authorities say a Baltimore special education teacher has been placed on administrative leave after being charged with human trafficking and prostitution.

Baltimore County police said Monday that 23-year-old Michael Brandon Osikomaiya was arrested last week.

Police said a 16-year-old girl posted an online ad for prostitution and an undercover detective contacted her to meet May 19 at a motel, where officers found her. Police say Osikomaiya is accused of being her pimp. The teenager wasn’t one of Osikomaiya’s students.

City school officials said in a statement that Osikomaiya was placed on administrative leave after the school system learned of the charges. He works at the public charter school NACA Freedom and Democracy II.

New York
Bill requires 911 call when disabled abuse suspected
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Several New York lawmakers are pushing legislation that would require caretakers of the disabled, mentally ill and addicted in state programs to report suspected abuse to local police and prosecutors.

The bill, with 31 Assembly sponsors and 18 in the Senate, would raise the penalty for failure to report incidents from a misdemeanor to a felony.

Sponsors say current law requires only notifying New York’s Justice Center in suburban Albany and has resulted in “persistent incidences of heartbreaking abuse” across the state.

The legislation would apply to staff of state facilities and group homes, requiring calls to the 911 operator and county district attorney also to report incidents.

Florida
Doctor sentenced to 25 years in 3 pill mill deaths
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge in Tampa has sentenced a 76-year-old doctor to 25 years in prison for the deaths of three patients who were prescribed pain medications at his clinic.

U.S. District Judge James D. Whittemore told Edward Neil Feldman at sentencing Monday that the doctor “became a drug pusher” and will have the “rest of his life to think about that.”

The Tampa Bay Times (http://bit.ly/1TASgjA ) reports Feldman showed no remorse. Feldman suggested he didn’t know he was breaking the law and asked the judge to show mercy on his 66-year-old wife Kim Feldman. She’s scheduled for sentencing Tuesday. She managed her husband’s office.

The Feldmans were convicted during a 17-day trial on multiple counts in a drug and financial conspiracy. Edward Feldman was held accountable for the three deaths.

West Virginia
State allows concealed guns without permits
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia now lets people 21 years old and up carry hidden guns without permits or training.

The law passed by the Republican-led Legislature took effect Tuesday.

In March, lawmakers needed only a simple majority to override Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s veto of the bill.

Tomblin vetoed it over safety concerns from law enforcement officials. He vetoed similar legislation last year.

It was already legal in West Virginia to carry guns openly — in a holster, for instance — without permits.

The law lets people carry concealed guns in public without permits, by wearing a coat for example. People ages 18 through 20 still will need a permit and training with live firing.

West Virginia is one of 10 states that don’t require concealed carry permits.

Alabama
House speaker’s trial on ethics charges to start
OPELIKA, Ala. (AP) — The speaker of Alabama’s House of Representatives is going on trial on felony charges that could result in his removal from office.

A judge told jurors to be in court Tuesday morning to begin the trial of Speaker Mike Hubbard.

Hubbard engineered the Republican Party’s takeover of the Alabama Statehouse in 2010. Now he’s charged with 23 felony ethics violations. Conviction on even one would result in his ouster.

Prosecutors say Hubbard used both his office and past position as chairman of the Alabama GOP to solicit business for himself and his companies.

Hubbard denies doing anything wrong.

Illinois
Family agrees to settlement in WWII vet’s death
MARKHAM, Ill. (AP) — Court documents show that relatives of a 95-year-old World War II veteran who was killed by a suburban Chicago police officer have agreed to settle their wrongful death lawsuit.

Park Forest Police Officer Craig Taylor was dispatched to the assisted-living facility where John Wrana Jr. lived in July 2013 after a staff member reported the man had become combative.
Wrana was shot five times with a beanbag gun before he dropped the knife he was wielding. He died hours later.

Wrana’s stepdaughter filed a $5 million wrongful death lawsuit in June 2014.

The Daily Southtown newspaper reports that Forest Park recently agreed to a $1.1 million settlement. None of the defendants named in the lawsuit admits liability or wrongful conduct.

Taylor was acquitted in Wrana’s death in February 2015.