Tennessee
Men charged in case involving 4 dead family members of abandoned infant
TIPTONVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Authorities searching for a man wanted in the murders of the parents, grandmother and uncle of an infant found alone and alive in Tennessee have charged two other men in connection with the killings.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation charged Tanaka Brown, 29, and Giovonte Thomas, 29, with accessory after the fact to first-degree murder. Investigators allege both men “assisted” 28-year-old Austin Robert Drummond in the murders.
Authorities have left many questions unanswered, including how the men allegedly helped Drummond, the manner in which the relatives were killed and how the baby ended up in a car seat in the Tigrett area, roughly 40 miles (64.37 kilometers) from the bodies.
Law enforcement officers were still searching for Drummond.
“He should be considered armed and dangerous,” the bureau said in a Saturday news release announcing charges against Thomas. Brown, who also faces one count of tampering with evidence, was arrested a day earlier.
Thomas was in custody at the Madison County Jail on an unrelated charge and was set to be transferred to the Lake County Jail to be arraigned on the new charges, authorities said.
Brown was booked into Lake County Jail, according to authorities. Telephone numbers for Thomas and Brown could not be located Sunday. Email messages seeking comment were sent to Brown.
On Friday, authorities said they found the car they believe Drummond had been driving. It was located in Jackson, Tennessee, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) from where the bodies were discovered and some 40 miles from where the baby was left.
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch said authorities believe the family murders were a targeted attack by Drummond, who had a relationship with the victims. The baby is safe and being cared for, authorities have said.
Officials obtained warrants for Drummond that charge him with four counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping and weapons offenses. His criminal history includes prison time for robbing a convenience store and threatening to go after jurors. He was also charged with attempted murder while behind bars.
No listed for number for Drummond could be found. An attorney who represented him as a teenager has not returned messages from The Associated Press.
Authorities have identified the four people found dead in Tiptonville as James M. Wilson, 21; Adrianna Williams, 20; Cortney Rose, 38; and Braydon Williams, 15.
Wilson and Adrianna Williams were the parents of the infant who was found abandoned. Rose was Adrianna and Braydon Williams’ mother.
Washington
Senate confirms former Fox News host Pirro as top federal prosecutor for the nation’s capital
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as the top federal prosecutor for the nation’s capital, filling the post after President Donald Trump withdrew his controversial first pick, conservative activist Ed Martin Jr.
Pirro, a former county prosecutor and elected judge, was confirmed 50-45. Before becoming the acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia in May, she co-hosted the Fox News show “The Five” on weekday evenings, where she frequently interviewed Trump.
Trump yanked Martin’s nomination after a key Republican senator said he could not support him due to Martin’s outspoken support for rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Martin now serves as the Justice Department’s pardon attorney.
In 2021, voting technology company Smartmatic USA sued Fox News, Pirro and others for spreading false claims that the company helped “steal” the 2020 presidential election from Trump. The company’s libel suit, filed in a New York state court, sought $2.7 billion from the defendants.
Last month, Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to send Pirro’s nomination to the Senate floor after Democrats walked out to protest Emil Bove’s nomination to become a federal appeals court judge.
Pirro, a 1975 graduate of Albany Law School, has significantly more courtroom experience than Martin, who had never served as a prosecutor or tried a case before taking office in January. She was elected as a judge in New York’s Westchester County Court in 1990 before serving three terms as the county’s elected district attorney.
In the final minutes of his first term as president, Trump issued a pardon to Pirro’s ex-husband, Albert Pirro, who was convicted in 2000 on conspiracy and tax evasion charges.
New York
Judge allows the National Science Foundation to withhold hundreds of millions of research dollars
NEW YORK (AP) — The National Science Foundation can continue to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars from researchers in several states until litigation aimed at restoring it plays out, a federal court ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge John Cronan in New York declined to force the NSF to restart payments immediately, while the case is still being decided, as requested by the sixteen Democrat-led states who brought the suit, including New York, Hawaii, California, Colorado and Connecticut.
In his ruling, Cronan said he would not grant the preliminary injunction in part because it may be that another court, the Court of Federal Claims, has jurisdiction over what is essentially a case about money. He also said the states failed to show that NSF’s actions were counter to the agency’s mandate.
The lawsuit filed in May alleges that the National Science Foundation’s new grant-funding priorities as well as a cap on what’s known as indirect research expenses “violate the law and jeopardize America’s longstanding global leadership in STEM.”
Another district court had already blocked the the cap on indirect costs — administrative expenses that allow research to get done like paying support staff and maintaining equipment. This injunction had been requested to restore funding to the grants that were cut.
In April, the NSF announced a new set of priorities and began axing hundreds of grants for research focused on things like misinformation and diversity, equity and inclusion. Researchers who lost funding also were studying artificial intelligence, post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans, STEM education for K-12 students and more.
Researchers were not given a specific explanation for why their grants were canceled, attorney Colleen Faherty, representing the state of New York, said during last month’s hearing. Instead, they received boilerplate language stating that their work “no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.”
NSF has long been directed by Congress to encourage underrepresented groups like women and people with disabilities to participate in STEM. According to the lawsuit, the science foundation’s funding cuts already halted efforts to train the next generation of scientists in fields like computer science, math and environmental science.
A lawyer for the NSF said at the hearing that the agency has the authority to fund whatever research it deems necessary — and has since its inception in 1950. In the court filing, the government also argued that its current priorities were to “create opportunities for all Americans everywhere” and “not preference some groups at the expense of others, or directly/indirectly exclude individuals or groups.”
The plaintiff states are trying to “substitute their own judgement for the judgement of the agency,” Adam Gitlin, an attorney for the NSF, said during the hearing.
The science foundation is still funding some projects related to expanding representation in STEM, Cronan wrote in his ruling. Per the lawsuit filed in May, for example, the University of Northern Colorado lost funding for only one of its nine programs focused on increasing participation of underrepresented groups in STEM fields.
The states are reviewing the decision, according to spokespeople from the New York and Hawaii attorney general offices. The National Science Foundation declined to comment.
Arkansas
Man sentenced to life without parole for 2024 mass shooting at grocery store
FORDYCE, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas man who killed four people and injured 11 others in a mass shooting at a grocery store last year was sentenced Monday to life in prison without parole.
A state judge sentenced Travis Eugene Posey to four life sentences for each count of capital murder. Posey was also sentenced to 220 years in prison for 11 counts of attempted capital murder.
Posey pleaded guilty last month to the shooting, which occurred last summer at the Mad Butcher grocery store in Fordyce, a city of about 3,200 people located 65 miles (104 kilometers) south of Little Rock.
Judge Spencer Singleton handed down the sentence after testimony from victims’ family members during a hearing in Fordyce.
“You don’t deserve to be part of our story,” Hanna Sturgis said during the hearing, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. Sturgis’ father, Roy Sturgis, was killed during the shooting.
Posey, who did not speak during Monday’s hearing, has been held without bond since the shooting and previously pleaded not guilty to the same charges.
Prosecutors and police have not publicly identified any motive for Posey, who was shot and injured by officers who exchanged fire with him. Police have said he did not appear to have a personal connection to any of the victims.
During the midday shooting, Posey carried a 12-gauge shotgun, a pistol and a bandolier with dozens of extra shotgun rounds, authorities said. He fired most, if not all, of the rounds using the shotgun, opening fire at people in the parking lot before entering the store and firing “indiscriminately” at customers and employees, police said. Multiple victims were found inside the store and in the parking lot, police said.
Posey lived in New Edinburg, a small town of about 150 people located southeast of Fordyce.
One of the women injured in the shooting has sued Posey, seeking monetary damages to cover medical care, lost earnings and other expenses as a result of the shooting. Attorneys for the woman have requested that a judge enter a default judgment against Posey, as he has not responded to the complaint. A judge has not ruled on that request.
The shooting temporarily closed the only grocery store in Fordyce, prompting food distribution sites to be set up around the community. The Mad Butcher reopened 11 days after the shooting.
Men charged in case involving 4 dead family members of abandoned infant
TIPTONVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Authorities searching for a man wanted in the murders of the parents, grandmother and uncle of an infant found alone and alive in Tennessee have charged two other men in connection with the killings.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation charged Tanaka Brown, 29, and Giovonte Thomas, 29, with accessory after the fact to first-degree murder. Investigators allege both men “assisted” 28-year-old Austin Robert Drummond in the murders.
Authorities have left many questions unanswered, including how the men allegedly helped Drummond, the manner in which the relatives were killed and how the baby ended up in a car seat in the Tigrett area, roughly 40 miles (64.37 kilometers) from the bodies.
Law enforcement officers were still searching for Drummond.
“He should be considered armed and dangerous,” the bureau said in a Saturday news release announcing charges against Thomas. Brown, who also faces one count of tampering with evidence, was arrested a day earlier.
Thomas was in custody at the Madison County Jail on an unrelated charge and was set to be transferred to the Lake County Jail to be arraigned on the new charges, authorities said.
Brown was booked into Lake County Jail, according to authorities. Telephone numbers for Thomas and Brown could not be located Sunday. Email messages seeking comment were sent to Brown.
On Friday, authorities said they found the car they believe Drummond had been driving. It was located in Jackson, Tennessee, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) from where the bodies were discovered and some 40 miles from where the baby was left.
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch said authorities believe the family murders were a targeted attack by Drummond, who had a relationship with the victims. The baby is safe and being cared for, authorities have said.
Officials obtained warrants for Drummond that charge him with four counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping and weapons offenses. His criminal history includes prison time for robbing a convenience store and threatening to go after jurors. He was also charged with attempted murder while behind bars.
No listed for number for Drummond could be found. An attorney who represented him as a teenager has not returned messages from The Associated Press.
Authorities have identified the four people found dead in Tiptonville as James M. Wilson, 21; Adrianna Williams, 20; Cortney Rose, 38; and Braydon Williams, 15.
Wilson and Adrianna Williams were the parents of the infant who was found abandoned. Rose was Adrianna and Braydon Williams’ mother.
Washington
Senate confirms former Fox News host Pirro as top federal prosecutor for the nation’s capital
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as the top federal prosecutor for the nation’s capital, filling the post after President Donald Trump withdrew his controversial first pick, conservative activist Ed Martin Jr.
Pirro, a former county prosecutor and elected judge, was confirmed 50-45. Before becoming the acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia in May, she co-hosted the Fox News show “The Five” on weekday evenings, where she frequently interviewed Trump.
Trump yanked Martin’s nomination after a key Republican senator said he could not support him due to Martin’s outspoken support for rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Martin now serves as the Justice Department’s pardon attorney.
In 2021, voting technology company Smartmatic USA sued Fox News, Pirro and others for spreading false claims that the company helped “steal” the 2020 presidential election from Trump. The company’s libel suit, filed in a New York state court, sought $2.7 billion from the defendants.
Last month, Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to send Pirro’s nomination to the Senate floor after Democrats walked out to protest Emil Bove’s nomination to become a federal appeals court judge.
Pirro, a 1975 graduate of Albany Law School, has significantly more courtroom experience than Martin, who had never served as a prosecutor or tried a case before taking office in January. She was elected as a judge in New York’s Westchester County Court in 1990 before serving three terms as the county’s elected district attorney.
In the final minutes of his first term as president, Trump issued a pardon to Pirro’s ex-husband, Albert Pirro, who was convicted in 2000 on conspiracy and tax evasion charges.
New York
Judge allows the National Science Foundation to withhold hundreds of millions of research dollars
NEW YORK (AP) — The National Science Foundation can continue to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars from researchers in several states until litigation aimed at restoring it plays out, a federal court ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge John Cronan in New York declined to force the NSF to restart payments immediately, while the case is still being decided, as requested by the sixteen Democrat-led states who brought the suit, including New York, Hawaii, California, Colorado and Connecticut.
In his ruling, Cronan said he would not grant the preliminary injunction in part because it may be that another court, the Court of Federal Claims, has jurisdiction over what is essentially a case about money. He also said the states failed to show that NSF’s actions were counter to the agency’s mandate.
The lawsuit filed in May alleges that the National Science Foundation’s new grant-funding priorities as well as a cap on what’s known as indirect research expenses “violate the law and jeopardize America’s longstanding global leadership in STEM.”
Another district court had already blocked the the cap on indirect costs — administrative expenses that allow research to get done like paying support staff and maintaining equipment. This injunction had been requested to restore funding to the grants that were cut.
In April, the NSF announced a new set of priorities and began axing hundreds of grants for research focused on things like misinformation and diversity, equity and inclusion. Researchers who lost funding also were studying artificial intelligence, post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans, STEM education for K-12 students and more.
Researchers were not given a specific explanation for why their grants were canceled, attorney Colleen Faherty, representing the state of New York, said during last month’s hearing. Instead, they received boilerplate language stating that their work “no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.”
NSF has long been directed by Congress to encourage underrepresented groups like women and people with disabilities to participate in STEM. According to the lawsuit, the science foundation’s funding cuts already halted efforts to train the next generation of scientists in fields like computer science, math and environmental science.
A lawyer for the NSF said at the hearing that the agency has the authority to fund whatever research it deems necessary — and has since its inception in 1950. In the court filing, the government also argued that its current priorities were to “create opportunities for all Americans everywhere” and “not preference some groups at the expense of others, or directly/indirectly exclude individuals or groups.”
The plaintiff states are trying to “substitute their own judgement for the judgement of the agency,” Adam Gitlin, an attorney for the NSF, said during the hearing.
The science foundation is still funding some projects related to expanding representation in STEM, Cronan wrote in his ruling. Per the lawsuit filed in May, for example, the University of Northern Colorado lost funding for only one of its nine programs focused on increasing participation of underrepresented groups in STEM fields.
The states are reviewing the decision, according to spokespeople from the New York and Hawaii attorney general offices. The National Science Foundation declined to comment.
Arkansas
Man sentenced to life without parole for 2024 mass shooting at grocery store
FORDYCE, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas man who killed four people and injured 11 others in a mass shooting at a grocery store last year was sentenced Monday to life in prison without parole.
A state judge sentenced Travis Eugene Posey to four life sentences for each count of capital murder. Posey was also sentenced to 220 years in prison for 11 counts of attempted capital murder.
Posey pleaded guilty last month to the shooting, which occurred last summer at the Mad Butcher grocery store in Fordyce, a city of about 3,200 people located 65 miles (104 kilometers) south of Little Rock.
Judge Spencer Singleton handed down the sentence after testimony from victims’ family members during a hearing in Fordyce.
“You don’t deserve to be part of our story,” Hanna Sturgis said during the hearing, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. Sturgis’ father, Roy Sturgis, was killed during the shooting.
Posey, who did not speak during Monday’s hearing, has been held without bond since the shooting and previously pleaded not guilty to the same charges.
Prosecutors and police have not publicly identified any motive for Posey, who was shot and injured by officers who exchanged fire with him. Police have said he did not appear to have a personal connection to any of the victims.
During the midday shooting, Posey carried a 12-gauge shotgun, a pistol and a bandolier with dozens of extra shotgun rounds, authorities said. He fired most, if not all, of the rounds using the shotgun, opening fire at people in the parking lot before entering the store and firing “indiscriminately” at customers and employees, police said. Multiple victims were found inside the store and in the parking lot, police said.
Posey lived in New Edinburg, a small town of about 150 people located southeast of Fordyce.
One of the women injured in the shooting has sued Posey, seeking monetary damages to cover medical care, lost earnings and other expenses as a result of the shooting. Attorneys for the woman have requested that a judge enter a default judgment against Posey, as he has not responded to the complaint. A judge has not ruled on that request.
The shooting temporarily closed the only grocery store in Fordyce, prompting food distribution sites to be set up around the community. The Mad Butcher reopened 11 days after the shooting.
