- PoliticsYahoo News
2020 Vision: Trump gets surprise Log Cabin Republicans endorsement
Click here for Yahoo News' 2020 tracker] Log Cabin Republicans back Trump During the 2016 election, Log Cabin Republicans, the conservative LGBT organization, declined to endorse Donald Trump for president, even after Trump's vow, at the Republican convention, to “do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from violence and oppression. Since taking office, Trump and his administration have effectively rolled back rights for the LGBT community, reinstating a ban on transgender troops from serving in the U.S. military; reversing departmental protections against discrimination against transgender people; banning the flying of pride flags at U.S. embassies; and siding with a Colorad...
NewsAFPUS murderer executed after choosing electric chair
A man put to death in the US state of Tennessee on Thursday for murdering a woman and her daughter chose in his final hours to be electrocuted rather than executed by lethal injection, prison officials said. Stephen West, who was convicted in the two killings more than 30 years ago, waited until Wednesday to choose his method of execution -- one day after Tennessee's Republican Governor Bill Lee refused his request for clemency. "After thorough consideration of Stephen West's request for clemency and a review of the case, the State of Tennessee's sentence will stand, and I will not be intervening," he said in a statement.
- PoliticsTime
Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Permit Employment Discrimination Against Transgender Workers
The Trump administration's Department of Justice is asking the Supreme Court to set a legal precedent that would enable employers to fire employees because they are transgender. The Department of Justice has submitted a brief to the Court Friday asking the Justices to rule that Title VII, a federal law that prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, religion or national origin, does not protect transgender people. The brief concerns R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, one of three cases that the Supreme Court agreed to hear earlier this year that concern whether Title VII can be applied to LGBTQ workers.
- WorldReuters
Grace 1 tanker raises Iranian flag, changes name to 'Adrian Darya-1'
An Iranian tanker caught in a stand-off between Tehran and the West has raised an Iranian flag and has had a new name painted on its side, Reuters images of the stationary vessel filmed off Gibraltar showed on Sunday. British Royal Marines seized the vessel in Gibraltar in July on suspicion that it was carrying oil to Syria, a close ally of Iran, in violation of European Union sanctions. Video footage and photographs showed the tanker flying the red, green and white flag of Iran and bearing the new name of 'Adrian Darya-1' painted in white on its hull.
- NewsAssociated Press
Mormon church warning: Beware of those fancy coffee drinks
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has issued a warning to members that coffee is prohibited no matter how fancy the name, that vaping is banned despite the alluring flavors and that marijuana is outlawed unless prescribed by "competent" doctors. The new guidance in the August issue of a church youth magazine does not include fundamental changes to the religion's strict health code, but the clarifications are significant and seem to reflect growing concern about young Latter-day Saints' adherence to the rules. The article says it aims to clear up issues that could be confusing for young people within the religion's "Word of Wisdom," a set of rules about what foods and drinks are good for members and what substances they should avoid.
- U.S.WABC – NY
Sister of officer who died by suicide Wednesday says NYPD is 'broken'
The NYPD is well aware of this mental health emergency, as nine of its officers have died by suicide since January. But Eileen Echeverria, whose brother's was the most recent death, said something is "broken" inside the department.
- NewsUSA TODAY
New Orleans reporter Nancy Parker killed in plane crash while shooting story
Fox 8 confirmed Parker's death on Instagram Friday, writing: "Today we mourn the loss of our longtime colleague and friend Nancy Parker." She was 53. "We can confirm she passed away in plane crash while covering a story at the New Orleans Lakefront Airport," the statement said. The New Orleans-based television station also confirmed that the plane's pilot, Franklin J.P. Augustus, was also killed. Parker, a five-time Emmy Award-winning journalist who worked for Fox 8 for over two decades, is survived by her husband, Glyn Boyd, and three children.
- NewsINSIDER
A couple in Australia and their pet dog were attacked by a giant carnivorous lizard
A 72-year-old man was seriously injured after attempting to break up a fight between his pet dog and a giant Goanna lizard, the Australian Broadcasting Company reported. Attempting to save his pup, a long-haired Jack Russell named Lilly, the man sustained a laceration and possible fracture on his right arm. Goannas are a carnivorous monitor lizard found in Australia.
- NewsCharlotte Observer
GPS monitoring violates some sex offenders’ rights, NC Supreme Court rules
Sex offenders have rights, too, and in some cases the state has been violating those rights, the NC Supreme Court ruled on Friday. The ruling concerns people who have been ordered to submit to satellite-based monitoring for the rest of their lives, which forces them to wear a tracking device so law enforcement can track their location via GPS using an ankle bracelet. Nearly 500 North Carolina sex offenders could now be freed from lifetime surveillance by the GPS monitoring program.
- NewsMiami Herald
Here’s what the NRA’s Marion Hammer says about Florida’s proposed assault weapons ban
Florida National Rifle Association lobbyist Marion Hammer warned state economists Friday that a proposed assault rifle ban would be devastating to gun manufacturers lured to the state over the last eight years. “Gov. Rick Scott and Enterprise Florida solicited and offered significant financial incentives to gun manufacturers to come to Florida to bring more jobs,” she said, speaking to economists who must analyze the impact of a constitutional amendment proposed for the 2020 ballot that would ban assault weapons.
- PoliticsThe Independent
Trump to drop out of 2020 race within months, former aide Scaramucci claims
Donald Trump will quit the 2020 race and not seek re-election, according to a former top aide. Anthony Scaramucci, the short-lived White House communications director, said the president will likelu quit the race in March to avoid the humiliation of defeat. He's gonna drop out of the race because it's gonna become very clear.
NewsAFPMan charged after New York scare over rice cookers
A young homeless man has been charged with placing false bombs, police said Saturday, after three empty rice cookers caused major commuter disruption in New York. Larry K. Griffin II, 26, was arrested by the New York Police Department and charged with three counts of placing a false bomb, according to a statement released Saturday. Parts of the city were alerted for two hours Friday morning as three suspicious objects were found: two near the World Trade Centre in the Fulton Street subway station, and one in the Chelsea district further north.
- WorldReuters
U.S. and UK presence in Gulf brings insecurity: Iran Revolutionary Guards navy chief
The presence of America and Britain in the Gulf region brings insecurity, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards navy, Alireza Tangsiri, was reported as saying by the ILNA news agency. Tensions have spiked between Iran and the U.S. and Britain in the Gulf after the Islamic Republic shot down an American drone in June and seized a British tanker last month for violating maritime regulations. Iran seized the tanker two weeks after British Royal Marines detained an Iranian tanker on suspicion of violating European Union sanctions by taking oil to Syria, a close ally of Iran.
- NewsAssociated Press
The Latest: Epstein lawyers dissatisfied with autopsy result
A Justice Department official says people including jail staff members believed to have information pertinent to the probe into financier Jeffrey Epstein's death are not cooperating with investigators. The official says the people have not yet been interviewed by the FBI and that their lack of cooperation is a challenge as investigators works to try to determine the full circumstances surrounding Epstein's suicide. The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Jihadi Jack: Isis fighter stripped of British citizenship by Home Office
The Isis fighter known as Jihadi Jack has been stripped of his British citizenship, prompting a diplomatic row between the UK and Canada, it has been reported. Muslim convert Jack Letts, 24, who had held dual UK and Canadian citizenship, declared he was an "enemy of Britain" after travelling from Oxfordshire to Syria at the age of 18 to join the terror group. He has begged to be allowed to return to the UK, insisting he had "no intention" of killing Britons, after he was captured by Kurdish forces in 2017.
- NewsYahoo News
Kamala Harris at church: ‘This is where we go when the times test our faith’
In an era in which religion and politics have frequently been used to create division and dissension, the pastor of a historic church is instead trying to utilize them for higher purposes. “Religion and politics should be partners for humanity,” says Rev. Jonathan Whitfield, senior pastor of the Corinthian Baptist Church in Des Moines. Founded in 1898, Rev. Whitfield's church is one of the oldest historically African-American churches in the city.
- NewsINSIDER
A Wisconsin college student was arrested after tearing up a classmate's swastika sign
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee junior Grae Hosmanek was arrested at a student-run event organized by Students Supporting Israel In May and his now fighting to clear her record. UWM Police Department Chief Joseph LeMire told Yahoo Lifestyle that the man was not causing a disturbance and that officers warned Hosmanek against intervening. A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student was arrested after tearing up a classmate's swastika sign, and now she's fighting to clear her record.
- LifestyleCar and Driver
View Photos of the Bentley EXP 100 GT at Pebble Beach
View Photos of the Bentley EXP 100 GT From Car and Driver
- WorldUSA TODAY
Dozens dead or hurt in wedding party blast in Afghan capital
A suicide-bomb blast ripped through a wedding party on a busy Saturday night in Afghanistan's capital and dozens of people were killed or wounded, a government official said. More than 1,000 people had been invited, one witness said, as fears grew that it could be the deadliest attack in Kabul this year. The blast occurred near the stage where musicians were and “all the youths, children and all the people who were there were killed,” witness Gul Mohammad said.
- NewsThe Independent
‘We’ve been bullied out of the water by the sharks’: Rise in great white numbers triggers panic on US beaches
A rise in great white shark sightings is causing panic on beaches on the US east coast, according to reports. Authorities in Cape Cod have put up warning signs and shut down beaches dozens of times in response to an increasing number of sightings. Between July and the first week of August, there have been at least 59 beach closures due to shark sightings on Cape Cod and Islands, in southeastern Massachusetts, according to the Boston Globe, with some 42 beach closures occurring in the first week of August alone.
NewsAFPMexico does not want El Paso shooter executed
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Friday that Mexico does not want the El Paso shooter who killed 22 people, including eight Mexicans, to be executed, and may seek to extradite him from the United States. The confessed shooter in the mass killing in the Texas border city, 21-year-old Patrick Crusius, potentially faces the death penalty in the US. Lopez Obrador, an anti-establishment leftist, said that while Mexico condemns Crusius's "reprehensible, abominable" crimes, it does not want to see him put to death.
- WorldReuters
Vietnam demands Chinese ship leaves its exclusive economic zone
Vietnam has demanded that China remove an oil survey vessel and its escorts from the Southeast Asian country's exclusive economic zone, amid a month-long standoff in waters seen as a potential global flashpoint as the United States challenges Beijing's maritime claims. Reuters first reported on Tuesday that the Haiyang Dizhi 8, conducted by the China Geological Survey, had returned to the area escorted by at least two Chinese coast guard vessels. "Vietnam has made contact with China to protest its repeated violations and demanded that China withdraw the vessel group from Vietnamese waters," Vietnam's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said in a statement.
- NewsAssociated Press
Reporter ID'd in New Orleans small plane crash
A New Orleans TV journalist and the pilot of a small plane are dead after their aircraft went down Friday in a field near a city airport. WVUE-TV confirms that Nancy Parker, a reporter and anchor at the television station for 23 years, was killed in the crash near Lakefront Airport, which accommodates smaller aircraft. A Federal Aviation Administration statement said the plane was a 1983 Pitts S-2B aircraft that crashed in an empty field about a half-mile south of the airport, which accommodates smaller aircraft, under unknown circumstances.
- NewsMiami Herald
Mom aims head-on at a tanker to kill herself, sons. When truck dodges, she doubles back
Police say a Gainesville, Florida, mom of two young boys told a friend she was going to kill herself and her sons by crashing her car with everyone inside. Later that day, on Friday afternoon, Gainesville police say that Melissa Gail Mack tried to made good on her threat by loading her children, ages 4 and 6, into her van. According to the police report, Mack left the northbound lanes of US-441, switched to a southbound lane, and aimed to hit a tanker truck head-on, the Gainesville Sun and WCJB first reported.
- NewsThe Daily Beast
This Teenager Escaped Repression in West Africa. ICE Claimed He Was an Adult, and Jailed Him Anyway.
They asked me for documents that prove I'm 17 years old and I provided all those documents,” he told Judge Frank Pimentel in the Port Isabel, Texas immigration court. I'm assuming the government must have some basis for concluding that he is older than that,” Pimentel responded. The attorney for Immigration and Customs Enforcement told the judge the birth year they had would make Mahmoud 25 years old.
