3 dead in North Carolina house shooting

At least seven people were shot and three were killed in a shooting at a house party early Saturday in North Carolina, a police chief said. (April 3)

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  • 6th victim dies following South Carolina shooting

    The only survivor of this week's mass shooting in South Carolina by former NFL player Phillip Adams has died of his injuries, authorities said Saturday.Details: Robert Shook, 38, an air conditioning technician from Cherryville, North Carolina, died of gunshot wounds from Wednesday's shooting at a doctor's home in Rock Hill, S.C., which claimed the lives of five other victims. Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free.*UPDATE 4/10/2021* It is with much sadness that we announce that late this afternoon our other beloved coworker, Robert...Posted by GSM Services on Saturday, April 10, 2021The big picture: Adams killed himself after opening fire, authorities say. The other victims were physician Robert Lesslie, his wife, Barbara Lesslie, and their grandchildren, Adah Lesslie, 9, Noah Lesslie, 5, and GSM Services air conditioning technician James Lewis — who was working with colleague Shook when the shooting happened.Of note: The Rock Hill shooting is the latest of several mass shootings to hit the U.S. over the past month.Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.

  • CEOs plot next moves against restrictive voting laws after historic Zoom summit

    Top CEOs plan to get dramatically tougher on state legislators over proposed new restrictions on voting.Driving the news: After a weekend Zoom summit, the CEOs are threatening to withhold campaign contributions — and to punish states by yanking investments in factories, stadiums and other lucrative projects.Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for freeThe call included a long list of business luminaries, including James Murdoch, Ken Chenault, Ken Frazier, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Levi Strauss CEO Chip Bergh, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, and executives of Delta, United and American Airlines.Why it matters: After a slow response to Georgia's new limits, corporate America is suddenly makes voting access a foremost issue — and is going beyond words with sweeping economic threats. Saturday's historic Zoom summit was organized by Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of Yale School of Management, who told me the execs "fortified each other": "There was no sense of fear."The call included 90 business leaders, plus 30 other experts and aides.A post-summit statement said: "CEOs who participated in a live poll indicated they will re-evaluate donations to candidates supporting bills that restrict voting rights and many would reconsider investments in states which act upon such proposals."Go deeper: CEOs are the new lawmakersLike this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.

  • There’s Nothing ‘Hypocritical’ About Punishing Georgia for Punishing Voters

    Scott McIntyre/GettyWhen Major League Baseball relocated the All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver in response to Georgia’s new voting law, Fox News was quick to react. “Is the White House concerned that Major League baseball is moving their All-Star Game to Colorado, where voting regulations are very similar to Georgia?” Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki last week.The network also featured Brian Kemp, governor of Georgia and former secretary of state there, claiming that it was “hypocritical” to move the game to Colorado, which, after all, has only half the number of early voting days and more strenuous ID requirements than those the new Georgia law has enacted. In a Republican National Lawyers Association Q&A this week, Kemp said the battle over the law—which pits Georgia-based companies and voting-rights activists against the state’s Republicans—represented the “fight of our lives” against “cancel culture.”All of this misses the point. It is futile to attempt an apples-to-apples comparison of one state’s voting policies to another’s, because there are wide variations in local voting cultures, demographics, geographies, and legal idiosyncrasies. Comparing Georgia’s voting requirements to Colorado’s without this context is like asking why you can play Beethoven on a piano but not a tambourine, as both happen to be instruments.Whoopi Goldberg Cuts Off Meghan McCain’s MLB Georgia Rant: ‘Are You Done?’For example, although it is factually true that Georgia has double the number of early voting days as Colorado, it’s important to acknowledge that most Georgians vote in person while almost no Coloradans do. To say that this is an advantage over Colorado is to fundamentally misunderstand how Coloradans vote. And the proof is in the numbers: Turnout in 2020 was 10 percentage points higher in Colorado than it was in Georgia. It’s unpersuasive to claim that your state is the same as another state when the results are so different, akin to two stores with the exact same security policies but with far different rates of theft because, say, one store is in a mall and the other is in an outdoor market.These misleading comparisons between states show the need for a smarter measuring stick. We should compare states to themselves. Would this bill make voting in this state harder to access than the current rules do? That standard would enable appropriate scrutiny of states that choose to make their own laws worse, negating the need for red-state-blue-state pissing matches, and instead holding the line and demanding states don’t undo their own good work.“If we want to talk about comparing one state to comparing the other, let’s see what trajectory they’re on,” Bob Brandon, president and CEO of the nonpartisan Fair Elections Center, recently told NBC News. Similarly, Justin Levitt, law professor at Loyola Law School at Loyola Marymount University in California, rejected state-by-state comparisons. Having an outdated law on the books is a lot different from “looking back on that law, in the current context, and saying, ‘Yeah, we need one of those,’” he said. “‘Somebody else screwed up’ is not an excuse for screwing up. That’s the inane part about whatabout-ism.”But that whatabout-ism is how politicians and the media have been focusing their attention. They are distracted by essentially meaningless rankings of states’ “ease of access,” pulled from data that is not uniformly collected or may be entirely based on one activism group’s interpretation of the laws as expansive or restrictive—hardly scientific comparisons. Today, conservative media outlets superficially compare the Georgia law to other states with no context. Not a single one has asked, “Does this make it easier for the exact same people in the same state to vote in the way they just did?” The restrictions of the new law may not affect turnout, but they won’t make voting easier or elections better either. It is far simpler, and more logical, to question whether a state is improving or worsening its own standards, and in light of what the standards have been in the immediate past.Take Kentucky. It is the only state with a Republican-controlled legislature that has passed bills so far this session to expand voting access. The state will now have three days of early voting, up from none, and firmer security and ease of access measures around absentee voting. It helps that the state has a governor with a “D” by his name, and also that Kentucky didn’t have to do much to make voting easier. As part of its response to the pandemic, Kentucky offered early and absentee voting for the first time. Once voters realized what a hassle voting had been when they only had a single day to vote in person in the middle of the week, there was no turning back. The voters demanded it become law.Most Republican-controlled state legislatures are poised to do the opposite: Legislation has been introduced that would make laws materially worse for voters, all based on the lie that the election was compromised by fraud. The Georgia law, while it does expand early voting and is a far cry from the horrors of the original legislation, will still produce new barriers for Georgians compared with access in 2020. It gives the state far stricter controls over the counties, essentially makes dropboxes useless, and prevents elections officials from sending absentee-ballot applications out to voters proactively. It also allows partisan groups to challenge the eligibility of an infinite number of voters, with essentially no limitations.Conservatives have also found a carrier for their grievances in the idea that blue states with restrictive voter laws are ignored while red states that introduce the same laws have big baseball games ripped away from them. Connecticut has no early voting at all. Neither does Delaware, the home of President Joe Biden. New Jersey just adopted nine days, the fifth-shortest window in the country, and New York only has 10. Connecticut, Delaware, and New Jersey also have far more restrictive absentee-ballot requirements than almost every state, including those in the Republican South. So why, they ask, do the Republican states end up getting all the criticism?While as a Texan I have long harbored the same frustration—when I lived in New York, for example, I could only vote in in-person at my precinct on Election Day (the 10 early days were introduced last year), and in Texas I can vote for 15 days anywhere in the county—the argument is unproductive. With the latest round of voting legislation, blue states are moving far more rapidly toward modern standards while Republican states are aggressively attempting to roll back what little advantages they had over their bluer counterparts (assuming, of course, they ever really had them). Since I’ve left New York, it has adopted early voting and updated its absentee-ballot requirements. It has implemented ranked-choice voting and synchronized federal and state primary schedules.Meanwhile, my home state has gone rapidly in the other direction. As in Georgia and other Republican-led states, proposals in Texas would restrict access to some of its best voting policies by banning drive-through voting (implemented with great success by Harris County, home of Houston), limiting absentee ballots and reducing early voting. Even the most draconian of these laws will still allow voters more time to vote early than those in Delaware, Connecticut, and New Jersey—but that’s not much comfort to a Texan.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Apple is sending an exec to an antitrust hearing, following an awkward exchange of letters in which 2 senators accused it of refusing to attend

    Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Mike Lee accused Apple of refusing to attend an antitrust hearing. Apple said there was a misunderstanding.

  • For the 1st time, Japan is home to a leader of the Masters

    Japan has been sending golfers to the Masters since 1936, with about three dozen players combining for well over 100 appearances at Augusta National. Hideki Matsuyama’s four-shot lead going into Sunday’s final round of the Masters is a breakthrough moment for Japan, which became the 17th nation to see one of its players hold a lead after any round at Augusta National. It was 10 years ago when Matsuyama became the first Asia-Pacific Amateur champion to make the cut and be the low amateur at the Masters.

  • We've lost the 'grandfather of the nation', UK's Prince Andrew says

    LONDON (Reuters) -The death of Prince Philip has left a huge void for his wife Queen Elizabeth and Britain has lost its "grandfather", his son Prince Andrew said on Sunday, as tributes poured in and the royals thanked the public for its support. Andrew joined his siblings Charles, Anne and Edward in saying they had taken strength from the outpouring of affection and would rally around their mother in her time of grief. Andrew called his father a "remarkable man" after he left a private church service in Windsor, near where Philip died on Friday aged 99.

  • Bafta Film Awards 2021: Snobbery, pianos and other takeaways

    Even with social distancing there was plenty of humour, glamour and surprises at the virtual event.

  • A former Minneapolis police officer said he quit days before the Derek Chauvin trial because he thinks protesters will 'burn the city down' no matter the case's outcome

    The former sergeant told Insider that he believed there would be rioting at the close of Chauvin's murder trial and that he feared getting killed.

  • McConnell praises Biden's response to Myanmar coup

    Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a longtime advocate of democracy in Myanmar, told Politico Monday the Biden administration is "trying to do the right thing" in responding to the Myanmar military coup.What he's saying: "On the domestic front, I have not yet witnessed something that I’ve been happy about," McConnell said. "But in this area, I think their instincts are good. I think they’re trying to do the right thing."Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for freeBetween the lines: President Biden has consulted McConnell on the U.S.' response to the takeover in Myanmar, which has led police and military to kill over 700 people since February, Politico reports. The Republican senator, an ally to Myanmar's democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, called on the Biden administration to address the coup at the United Nations Security Council to ensure international attention.“Our ability to influence this from halfway around the world is limited,” he said. “But we do have tools.”"The lion share of the burden is on the State Department and the administration," he added. "But in any way that congressional action needs to be a part of this: Count me in."A former top State Department official who used to work with McConnell's staff told Politico McConnell has been "frustrated at times that, on both sides of the aisle, the White House and the State Department hasn't always come up with effective Burma policies."The big picture: The Biden administration has meted out a number of sanctions on Myanmar military officials in response, suspending trade engagement and imposing export controls.But the violence hasn't abated in Myanmar. On Saturday, security forces killed at least 82 pro-democracy protesters, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group.Go deeper: UN envoy says "a bloodbath is imminent" in MyanmarMore from Axios: Sign up to get the latest market trends with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free

  • U.S. distances itself from explosion at Iranian nuclear site

    The Biden administration says it had no role in the explosion on Sunday at an Iranian uranium enrichment facility. Iran has blamed Israel and vowed to take revenge.Why it matters: The administration is attempting to negotiate a return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, with a second round of indirect talks set to start on Wednesday. The timing of the incident, along with several recent Israeli strikes on Iranian ships, could make Biden's diplomatic challenge more difficult.Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free.What they're saying: "We have seen reports of an incident at the Natanz enrichment facility in Iran. The United States had no involvement, and we have nothing to add to speculation about the causes," a senior Biden administration official said.Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif blamed Israel for the explosion, which resulted in damage to centrifuges used to enrichment uranium. He said the incident would not affect the nuclear talks, but “we will take our revenge against the Zionists.”Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's atomic energy organization, denied a New York Times report that the explosion caused such severe damage that it will take 9 months to repair. Salehi said uranium enrichment continues and the damaged centrifuges will soon be replaced.Iranian media reported that the intelligence services were investigating the incident, and one arrest had already been made.Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met this morning in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Speaking alongside Austin, Netanyahu stressed that Iran was the gravest threat in the region and that Israel would never allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.Austin stressed the U.S. commitment to Israel's security but did not mention Iran. Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.

  • Mom: Minnesota Cops Killed Son After Stopping Him on an Air-Freshener Violation

    Nick Pfosi via ReutersPolice in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center fatally shot a Black 20-year-old man during a traffic stop on Sunday afternoon, setting off a string of violent protests amid tensions over the Derek Chauvin murder trial. The victim’s mother spent much of Sunday afternoon at the scene of the fatal shooting, pleading with officers to remove the body of her son, Daunte Wright, from the pavement. Hours after the shooting, hundreds of residents surrounded the police headquarters and clashed with police, who responded with tear gas and flashbangs reminiscent of last summer’s protests after the police death of George Floyd. “He got out of the car, and his girlfriend said they shot him,” Katie Wright said, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “He got back in the car, and he drove away and crashed and now he’s dead on the ground since 1:47... Nobody will tell us anything. Nobody will talk to us... I said please take my son off the ground.”Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott also identified Wright as the victim of Sunday’s incident. On Sunday night, Elliott called the shooting “tragic” and urged both police and protesters to remain peaceful.“Our hearts are with his family, and with all those in our community impacted by this tragedy,” Elliott tweeted. “While we await additional information from the BCA who is leading the investigation, we continue to ask that members of our community gathering do so peacefully, amid our calls for transparency and accountability.”The Brooklyn Center Police Department said the incident occurred shortly before 2 p.m., after officers initiated a stop for a traffic violation. Wright’s mother said that during the stop, her son called her to tell her he had been pulled over because an air freshener was allegedly hanging in his rear-view mirror—which is an offense in Minnesota. “He called me at about 1:30. He said he was getting pulled over by the police. And I said ‘Why you getting pulled over?’ And he said they pulled him over because he had air fresheners hanging from his rear-view mirror. I said, ‘OK take them down,’” Wright said, adding that she could hear a scuffle break out and someone yelling, “Daunte, don’t run.” When she called back, her son was dead.Police say that during a name check, they discovered Wright had an outstanding arrest warrant. As they tried to take him into custody, cops said Wright re-entered his car—prompting an officer to discharge his weapon. Wright then drove several blocks before “striking another vehicle,” police said in a press release. “Officers in pursuit and responding medical personnel attempting life-saving measures, but the person died at the scene.”Police also noted that a female passenger who was in the car was injured during the crash and she was transported to another hospital. The occupants of the other car were unharmed. It is not immediately clear why police opened fire or if Wright was presumed to be armed, or what the arrest warrant was for.Wright also had previous run-ins with law enforcement. According to court records, he was charged with a petty misdemeanor twice in August 2019—once for selling marijuana and another for disorderly conduct. In February, however, Wright was charged with aggravated robbery. He was released conditionally, according to jail records.Protests then broke out despite Wright’s family pleading for calm. By nightfall, police fired rounds of tear gas, rubber bullets, and flashbangs at around 500 protesters who had gathered near the Brooklyn Center police headquarters and defaced the signage. Brooklyn Center also issued a 6 a.m. curfew in an attempt to curtail the violence, but that effort was largely unsuccessful after many of the protesters retreated into nearby residential areas, according to the Star Tribune. Around midnight, National Guard troops tried to secure the area as looters stormed a nearby Walmart store. Local media reports that many nearby businesses, including a Foot Locker and New York clothing store, were damaged in the ensuing violence. Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington, alongside State Patrol and Hennepin County officers, said early Monday that the Guard presence would remain “robust” for the next “two or three days.”Wright’s mother called for calm, telling the gathering crowds: “All the violence, if it keeps going it’s only going to be about the violence. We need it to be about why my son got shot for no reason. We need to make sure it’s about him and not about smashing police cars, because that’s not going to bring my son back.”By early morning, the protests had spread to southern Minneapolis and were gaining strength in numbers ahead of first light. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said he is “closely monitoring” events and Brooklyn Center Mayor Elliott called on police to avoid using force against peaceful protesters. “A difficult night in Minnesota. We mourn with Daunte Wright’s family as another Black man’s life is lost at the hands of law enforcement,” Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith tweeted Monday.The shooting was also brought up Monday before court began in the murder trial of former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin, who held his knee on George Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes before he died during a May 2020 arrest over a counterfeit bill. Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s defense attorney, requested to sequester the 12-person jury, stating that Sunday’s shooting could have hindered their ability to make an impartial decision about his client’s fate.Judge Peter Cahill, however, denied the motion after highlighting that while there is “civil unrest and maybe some of the jurors did hear about it,” the cases are unrelated and there has been no evidence of jury-tampering. Brooklyn Center Community Schools have pivoted to remote learning on Monday “out of an abundance of caution,” Superintendent Carly Baker wrote on the school’s website. “I haven’t entirely processed the tragedy that took place in our community and I’m prioritizing the safety and well-being of our students, families, staff members, and community members,” he added.The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota on Monday demanded an “immediate, transparent and independent investigation by an outside agency,” adding that the body-camera footage belonging to all the officers involved in the shooting should be released immediately. The group also called that the names of the officers be released. “We have concerns that police appear to have used dangling air fresheners as an excuse for making a pretextual stop, something police do too often to target Black people,” the ACLU of Minnesota tweeted. For Wright’s family, however, the initial shock of losing the 20-year-old, whom they describe as a new father who had a whole life ahead of him,” is still overwhelming. “We just want people to know Daunte was a good kid,” the family said in a statement. “He loved being a father to Daunte Jr.”“Daunte had a smile to make anyone’s heart melt. He was definitely a jokester, he loved to joke with people, especially his brothers and sisters,” the family added. “He did not deserve this,” the family added.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Police officer accused of pepper-spraying Black and Latino Army officer in Virginia fired

    A Windsor police officer accused of pepper-spraying a Black and Latino military officer and forcing him to the ground in December has been fired.

  • The Virginia police officer who was filmed pepper-spraying a uniformed Black Army officer after holding him at gunpoint has been fired

    Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia has also ordered an independent investigation into the traffic stop involving 2nd Lt. Caron Nazario.

  • A former Minneapolis police officer said Derek Chauvin violated protocol kneeling on George Floyd's neck, but he doesn't think the officer committed a crime

    The former officer, who spoke with Insider on condition of anonymity, said he believed Floyd died of a drug overdose.

  • 'Huge' explosion rocks St. Vincent as volcano keeps erupting

    La Soufriere volcano fired an enormous amount of ash and hot gas early Monday in the biggest explosive eruption yet since volcanic activity began on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent late last week, with officials worried about the lives of those who have refused to evacuate. Experts called it a “huge explosion” that generated pyroclastic flows down the volcano’s south and southwest flanks. “It’s destroying everything in its path,” Erouscilla Joseph, director of the University of the West Indies’ Seismic Research Center, told The Associated Press.

  • Virginia police officer fired after violent stop of Black Army officer. Governor calls for state investigation.

    The town of Windsor, Virginia, said Sunday that one officer has been fired and another disciplined over an arrest in December that went viral on social media over the weekend. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) said earlier Sunday that video of the traffic stop, in which Army Lt. Caron Nazario was pepper-sprayed at gunpoint by two officers, "is disturbing and angered me," and he said he has directed the Virginia State Police to investigate the incident. Nazario, who is Black and Latino, is also suing the officers, Joe Gutierrez and Daniel Crocker, in federal court. Gutierrez and Crocker pulled Nazario over in Windsor on Dec. 5, 2020, because his brand new SUV did not have permanent license plates. At one point, Nazario, in his Army uniform, told the officers he was afraid to get out of the car, video from Nazario's cellphone and the officers' body cameras show. "Yeah, you should be," one of the officers responded. Gutierrez, who pepper-sprayed Nazario inside his car before arresting him, did not follow Windsor police procedures and was "terminated from his employment," the town of Windsor said in a statement. Nazario was released without charge. In a federal lawsuit filed April 2, Nazario argues excessive force by the officers violated his constitutional rights and says the officers threatened to end his military career if he spoke out about the arrest, The Washington Post reports. He is seeking at least $1 million in damages. Windsor, a town of about 2,600 about 30 miles west of Norfolk, "acknowledges the unfortunate events that transpired," and "department-wide requirements for additional training were implemented beginning in January and continue up to the present," Windsor officials said in a statement Sunday night. "The Town of Windsor prides itself in its small-town charm and the community-wide respect of its police department," the statement added. "Due to this, we are saddened for events like this to cast our community in a negative light." More stories from theweek.comTrump finally jumps the sharkYou should start a keyhole garden7 brutally funny cartoons about Mitch McConnell's corporate hypocrisy

  • People on the Caribbean island where a volcano went off are being evacuated on cruise ships - but not without a COVID-19 vaccine

    The evacuees most have received a vaccination before they board the cruise ships, the prime minister has said.

  • Prince William paid tribute to his 'extraordinary' grandfather Prince Philip, saying his life was 'defined by service'

    Prince William's statement on Prince Philip's death was published on the Royal Family's website on Monday.

  • A 24-year-old student in Seoul died after a 'ghost surgeon' illegally performed jawline-altering surgery on him

    Ghost surgery is illegal, but, as CNN found, the laws around it are weak - and the practice offers clinics a way to maximize their profits.

  • Prince Harry may have to wear suit instead of military uniform to Prince Philip's funeral

    The Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral will be the first occasion that marks Prince Harry’s change of status within the Royal family. The Queen stripped the Duke and Duchess of Sussex of all official royal titles earlier this year after they confirmed they would not return to their roles as working royals. As a ceremonial event, it is believed that the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge and the Earl of Wessex will attend the funeral in military uniform. But as the Duke was stripped of his honorary military titles, including his prized role as Captain General of the Royal Marines, it is thought he will have to wear a suit, despite having served as an Army officer. Protocol dictates that retired service personnel can wear their medals – but not their uniform – at official engagements once they have left the military. Similarly, the Duke of York, who served for 22 years with the Royal Navy and who was forced to step back from public life "for the foreseeable future" in 2019 over his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, will also be prevented from wearing military uniform.