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Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
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앞서 김 의원은 지난해 5월 말 기준으로 실시한 국민권익의원회의 국회의원 가상자산 전수 조사에서 8억4000만원 상당의 가상자산을 보유한 것으로 조사됐다．김 의원은 지난해 가상화폐 안전놀이터 논란으로 민주당을 탈당해 무소속으로 의정활동을 해오다가 올해 4·10 총선을 앞두고 민주당 비례위성정당인 더불어민주연합에 입당했다
김 의원은 29일 SBS라디오 ‘김태현의 정치쇼’에서 민주연합에 합류한 배경에 대해 “조국혁신당의 지지율이 굉장히 높게 치솟았다 보니 안전놀이터 민주당 당원들에게 소구력이 있고 상징성이 있는 제가 더불어민주연합에 함께 합류해서 도움을 줘야 되는 것 아니냐라는 그런 필요성이 이야기되다 보니까 함께하게 됐다”고 설명했다
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대웅바이오는 2형 당뇨병 치료제 포시다파정이 서울아산병원 원내의약품 처방 대상 품목에 포함됐다고 8일 밝 혔다
What i dont understood is in reality how youre now not really a lot more smartlyfavored than you might be now Youre very intelligent You understand therefore significantly in terms of this topic produced me personally believe it from a lot of numerous angles Its like women and men are not interested except it is one thing to accomplish with Woman gaga Your own stuffs outstanding Always care for it up
진달래 메이저놀이터 의 연분홍 은은한 색채가 산새의 지저귐과 어울리는 4월 초순에 임실 오봉산에 올랐다
메이저놀이터 봄철은 황사 미세먼지와 더불어 꽃가루까지 날아다니면서 호흡기가 약한 사람들에게는 괴로운 계절이다
충남 서산시 읍내동의 한 숙박시설에서 60대 남성이 숨진 메이저놀이터 채 발견됐다
약 3년 전 설립된 신생 퍼블리셔, 크리티컬 리플렉스는 부스 디자인만큼이나 독특한 게임을 선보이려는 인디 게임 전문 퍼블리셔입 메이저놀이터 니다
시프트업의 신작 액션 게임, 스텔라 블레이드의 신규 영상이 공개됐 메이저놀이터 다
부산 KCC의 슈퍼팀 위용이 봄 농구 들어 메이저놀이터 비로소 완성됐다
프랑스 한 소도시의 현직 시장 자택에서 70㎏의 대마 수지(대마 메이저놀이터 진액을 압축한 것)가 발견돼 시장과 그 주변 인물들이 체포됐다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 15일 러시아 하바롭스크주 콤소 메이저놀이터 몰스크나아무레시에 있는 유리 가가린 전투기 생산 공장을 방문했다
상습적으로 메이저놀이터 음주 운전을 한 40대가 항소심에서도 실형을 선고받았다
지구에서 가장 추운 남극의 기온이 계절 평균보다 38 메이저놀이터
7일 서울 서초구 빗썸 고객센터에 비 메이저놀이터 트코인 가격이 표시되고 있다
X 메이저놀이터 D가 개발 중인 SRPG 신작, 소드 오브 콘발라리아가 지난 2월 29일부터 3월 8일까지 한국 CBT를 진행했다
박광온 더불어민주당 메이저놀이터 원내대표가 14일 국회에서 열린 의원총회에서 발언을 하고 있다
김정은 북한 국무위원장과 블라디미르 푸틴 메이저놀이터 러시아 대통령의 정상회담을 계기로 양국이 농업 건설 부문에서 공동 프로젝트를 진행하기로 했다
권오갑 HD현대 회장(앞줄 가운데)이 조 메이저놀이터 선소 협력사에서 근무하는 외국인 노동자들과 기념촬영을 하고 있다
권오갑 HD현대 회장(앞줄 가운데)이 조 메이저놀이터 선소 협력사에서 근무하는 외국인 노동자들과 기념촬영을 하고 있다
카멘 더 퍼스트는 명 메이저놀이터 예를 강조한 이벤트였다
개인적으로 마이너하지만 메이저놀이터 좋아하는 장르가 있습니다
부산항 신항 서컨테이너부두 2-5단계 동원글로벌터미널부산(DGT, 부산항 신항 7부두)은 마치 스마트 물류센터와 같은 메이저놀이터 모습을 자랑한다
윤석열 대통령이 15일 인천항 수로에서 열린 제73 메이저놀이터 주년 인천상륙작전 전승행사에서 해군 상륙함 노적봉함에 탑승해 기념사를 하고 있다
샤오메이친(蕭美琴) 대만 부총통 당선인이 지난달 체코를 방문했을 때 중국 외교관이 그를 미행하다 현지 경찰에 적발돼 추방될 것으 메이저놀이터 로 보인다
X 메이저놀이터 D가 개발 중인 SRPG 신작, 소드 오브 콘발라리아가 지난 2월 29일부터 3월 8일까지 한국 CBT를 진행했다
지난 5일 고척 키움전에서 조기강판 당한 류현진이 아쉬운 표정으로 더그아 메이저놀이터 웃에 들어가고 있다
그는 현자가 아닐지도, 어쩌면 우자 메이저놀이터 이거나 광인일지도 모른다
한국 시간으로 금일(1일) 오전, 코나미는 스테이트 오브 플레이를 통해 자 메이저놀이터 사의 호러 게임 프랜차이즈 사일런트 힐 신작의 정보를 공개했습니다
최대 4억원의 시세차익이 예상되는 경기 하남시 감일지구의 아파트 무순위 청약에 57만7000여명의 청약자가 몰 메이저놀이터 렸다
이번에 소개할 제품은 스틸시리즈 Aerox 5 스틸시리즈 Aerox 5 Wireles 메이저놀이터 s 게이밍 마우스이다
김준우 녹색정의당 상임선대위원장이 26일 국회에서 경향신문과 인터뷰를 하고 있다 메이저놀이터
SPC그룹의 파리바게뜨 제빵 기사 민주노총 탈퇴 강요 의혹을 수사 중인 검찰이 메이저놀이터 허영인 회장을 서울구치소에서 불러 조사하고 있다
프로야구 KIA가 새 외국인 투수 제임스 네일(사진)의 환상투를 메이저놀이터 앞세워 개막 3연승을 달렸다
조규홍 보건복지부 장관이 8일 오전 정부세종청사에서 열린 의사 집단행동 중앙재난안전대책본부 회의를 주재하고 있 메이저놀이터 다
프로야구 KIA가 새 외국인 투수 제임스 네일(사진)의 환상투를 메이저놀이터 앞세워 개막 3연승을 달렸다
프로야구 삼성 라이온즈의 내야수 류지혁(30)이 LG 트윈스와 경기 중 부상으 메이저놀이터 로 경기 도중 병원으로 이송됐다
제22대 국회의 메이저놀이터 원 선거 당일인 10일에는 낮 최고 21도로 평년 이맘때 날씨가 예상된다
박광온 더불어민주당 메이저놀이터 원내대표가 14일 국회에서 열린 의원총회에서 발언을 하고 있다
LG전자 사내벤처 엑스업의 이용수 대표가 지난 20일 마곡 LG사이언스파크에서 열린 스튜디오341 데모데이에서 골프장 코스관리 솔루션을 소개하고 있다 메이저놀이터
2024총선미디어감시단의 포털 총선보도 모니터 보고서 마 메이저놀이터 지막회를 발간합니다
LG전자 사내벤처 엑스업의 이용수 대표가 지난 20일 마곡 LG사이언스파크에서 열린 스튜디오341 데모데이에서 골프장 코스관리 솔루션을 소개하고 있다 메이저놀이터
1만 원은 줘야 제사상에 올릴 메이저놀이터 사과 한 알을 살 수 있는 고물가 시대다
외신 클럽 회견윤 대통령을 레임덕나아가 데드덕 메이저놀이터 만들 것조국 조국혁신당 대표가 27일 서울 프레스센터 외신 클럽에서 열린 간담회에서 차를 마시고 있다
하나은행이 금융감독원의 홍콩H지수 주가연계증권(ELS) 분쟁조정기준안을 수용하고 자율배상에 나서기로 27일 이사회에서 메이저놀이터 결의했다
통계청고금리 영향으로 임금근로자 평균 대출잔액이 메이저놀이터 통계 작성 이후 처음으로 감소했다
국민의힘이 또다시 MBC를 검 메이저놀이터 찰에 고발했습니다
술에 취해 대리기사를 때리고, 운전대를 메이저놀이터 잡은 50대 남성이 경찰에 덜미를 잡혔다
봄바람을 타고 나는 도깨비불 불씨는 최대 2㎞까지 날아가는 메이저놀이터 등 산불 확산 속도를 26배까지 빠르게 하는 것으로 나타났다
하이브IM의 신작, 별이되어라2: 베다의 기사들(이하 별되2) 메이저놀이터 의 파이널 트레일러가 공개됐다
정부가 전면 재개발이 어려운 노후 저층 주거지의 재개발 속도를 앞당기기 위해 뉴:빌리지 사업에도 메이저놀이터 패스트트랙 제도를 도입키로 했다
부산항 신항 서컨테이너부두 2-5단계 동원글로벌터미널부산(DGT, 부산항 신항 7부두)은 마치 스마트 물류센터와 같은 메이저놀이터 모습을 자랑한다
프로야구 KIA가 새 외국인 투수 제임스 네일(사진)의 환상투를 메이저놀이터 앞세워 개막 3연승을 달렸다
지난달 14일 경기도 수원시 경기 메이저놀이터 도의회에서 제22대 국회의원선거 김준혁 더불어민주당 수원정 후보가 공약을 발표하고 있다
봄바람을 타고 나는 도깨비불 불씨는 최대 2㎞까지 날아가는 메이저놀이터 등 산불 확산 속도를 26배까지 빠르게 하는 것으로 나타났다
한국 시간으로 금일(1일) 오전, 코나미는 스테이트 오브 플레이를 통해 자 메이저놀이터 사의 호러 게임 프랜차이즈 사일런트 힐 신작의 정보를 공개했습니다
올해 타이베이 게임쇼에는 다양한 인디 게임들이 출품 메이저놀이터 됐습니다
가란 메이저놀이터 도는 신안 압해도에 딸린, 섬 속의 섬이다
올해 타이베이 게임쇼에는 메이저놀이터 다양한 인디 게임들이 출품됐습니다
메이저놀이터 상습적으로 음주 운전을 한 40대가 항소심에서도 실형을 선고받았다
좋은 기술이나 아이디어를 가지고 있으나, 기업 운 메이저놀이터 영 경험이 부족하고 마케팅 능력이 없어 제대로 꿈을 펴지 못하는 스타트업∙중소기업이 적지 않다
제22대 국회의 메이저놀이터 원 선거 당일인 10일에는 낮 최고 21도로 평년 이맘때 날씨가 예상된다
거주 중인 구축 빌라 벽에 적힌 거지 동네 낙서 메이저놀이터 를 본 30대 가장이 씁쓸함을 토로했다
메이저놀이터 봄철은 황사 미세먼지와 더불어 꽃가루까지 날아다니면서 호흡기가 약한 사람들에게는 괴로운 계절이다
7일 서울 서초구 빗썸 고객센터에 비 메이저놀이터 트코인 가격이 표시되고 있다
메이저놀이터 마이트 앤 매직은 넓은 오픈 필드와 다양한 퀘스트로 RPG를 이야기할 때 빼놓을 수 없는 작품이다
포근한 날씨를 메이저놀이터 보인 지난 7일 상춘객들이 경기 과천 서울대공원을 찾아 벚꽃을 만끽하고 있다
제22대 국회의원선거 사전투표가 시작된 5일 인천국제공항 제1터미널 메이저놀이터 에 마련된 사전투표소에서 유권자들이 투표하고 있다
위메이드가 미르 시리즈의 최신작인 미르5를 발표하고 메이저놀이터 아트 데모 영상을 공개했다
현대자동차는 인증 중고차와 연계한 보상판매(트레이드-인) 혜택을 이달 현대차 제네시스 9개 차종으로 확대하고 현금 할인액도 늘렸다고 9일 밝 메이저놀이터 혔다
오랜만에 안아봤는데 너무 귀엽고 메이저놀이터 , 더 잘해줬으면 좋겠습니다
현대자동차는 인증 중고차와 연계한 보상판매(트레이드-인) 혜택을 이달 현대차 제네시스 9개 차종으로 확대하고 현금 할인액도 늘렸다고 9일 밝 메이저놀이터 혔다
슈퍼스타 메이저놀이터 크리스티아누 호날두가 상대와 신경전 중 팔꿈치 가격으로 퇴장을 당했다
그는 현자가 아닐지도, 어쩌면 우자 메이저놀이터 이거나 광인일지도 모른다
지구에서 가장 추운 남극의 기온이 계절 평균보다 38 메이저놀이터
스타벅스 코리아가 오는 16일까지 본인의 커피 취향 메이저놀이터 을 알 수 있게 돕는 커피 스탬프 행사를 연다고 8일 밝혔다
지난 3월 교육부가 발표한 교사가 이끄는 교실 혁명을 촉진하는 자율적 메이저놀이터 수업 혁신 지원 방안은 두 가지 문제의식을 전제하고 있다
국민 메신저로 불리는 카카오톡 이용자 수가 메이저놀이터 감소세를 이어가고 있다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 15일 러시아 하바롭스크주 콤소몰스크나아무레시에 있는 유리 가가린 전투기 생산 공장을 방 메이저놀이터 문했다
충남 아산 메이저놀이터 의 한 석재회사 직원이 거대한 고무대야에 자갈을 넣고 물을 뿌려 박박 닦는 영상이 공개돼 화제다
외신 클럽 회견윤 대통령을 레임덕나아가 데드덕 메이저놀이터 만들 것조국 조국혁신당 대표가 27일 서울 프레스센터 외신 클럽에서 열린 간담회에서 차를 마시고 있다
X 메이저놀이터 D가 개발 중인 SRPG 신작, 소드 오브 콘발라리아가 지난 2월 29일부터 3월 8일까지 한국 CBT를 진행했다
조국 조국혁신당 대표가 28일 대구 중구 동성로에서 지지자와 함께 피켓을 메이저놀이터 들고 있다
러시아를 방문 중인 김정은 북한 국무위원장이 지난 13일 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령과 회담을 했다고 조선중앙 메이저놀이터 TV가 14일 보도했다
현대자동차는 인증 중고차와 연계한 보상판매(트레이드-인) 혜택을 이달 현대차 제네시스 9개 차종으로 확대하고 현금 할인액도 늘렸다고 9일 밝 메이저놀이터 혔다
지난 25일 오후 과천 메이저놀이터 중앙선거관리위원회의 선거종합상황실 현황판에 후보자 등록현황 등이 표시돼 있다
러시아를 방문 중인 김정은 북한 국무위원장이 지난 13일 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령과 회담을 했다고 조선중앙 메이저놀이터 TV가 14일 보도했다
마이트 앤 매직은 넓은 오픈 필드와 다양한 퀘스트로 RPG를 이야 메이저놀이터 기할 때 빼놓을 수 없는 작품이다
하나은행이 금융감독원의 홍콩H지수 주가연계증권(ELS) 분쟁조정기준안을 수용하고 자율배상에 나서기로 27일 이사회에서 메이저놀이터 결의했다
조규홍 보건복지부 장관이 8일 오전 정부세종청사에서 열린 의사 집단행동 중앙재난안전대책본부 회의를 주재하고 있 메이저놀이터 다
정부가 메이저놀이터 전면 재개발이 어려운 노후 저층 주거지의 재개발 속도를 앞당기기 위해 뉴:빌리지 사업에도 패스트트랙 제도를 도입키로 했다
서울을 떠올릴 수 메이저놀이터 있는 디자인으로 단장한 쓰레기통이 도심 곳곳에 설치된다
상습적으로 메이저놀이터 음주 운전을 한 40대가 항소심에서도 실형을 선고받았다
메이저놀이터 15일로 단식 16일차인 이재명 더불어민주당 대표가 국회 당대표실로 지팡이를 짚고 들어가고 있다
제22대 국회의 메이저놀이터 원 선거 당일인 10일에는 낮 최고 21도로 평년 이맘때 날씨가 예상된다
이번 팍스에서 반드시 해보고 싶었던 게임이 있습니다 메이저놀이터
1인 개발사 썬더폭스 스튜디오가 개발중인 인디 게임 문베이스 람다는 1비트 메이저놀이터 디더링 그래픽을 활용한 서바이벌 호러 게임입니다
LG이노텍이 성능을 대폭 강화한 고성능 라이다(LiDAR 메이저놀이터 )를 앞세워 자동차 첨단운전지원시스템(ADAS) 센싱 시장 공략에 박차를 가한다
인천에 있는 대갈공원과 새갈공원이 주민 민원에 따른 별칭 메이저놀이터 공모를 거쳐 새 이름을 얻었다
지난해 선풍적인 인기를 끌던 탕 메이저놀이터 후루의 기세가 크게 꺾였다
최대 4 메이저놀이터 억원의 시세차익이 예상되는 경기 하남시 감일지구의 아파트 무순위 청약에 57만7000여명의 청약자가 몰렸다
메이저놀이터 슈퍼스타 크리스티아누 호날두가 상대와 신경전 중 팔꿈치 가격으로 퇴장을 당했다
봄바람을 타고 나는 도깨비불 불씨는 최대 2㎞까지 날아가는 메이저놀이터 등 산불 확산 속도를 26배까지 빠르게 하는 것으로 나타났다
지구에서 가장 추운 남극의 기온이 계절 평균보다 38 메이저놀이터
지난달 14일 경기도 수원시 경기 메이저놀이터 도의회에서 제22대 국회의원선거 김준혁 더불어민주당 수원정 후보가 공약을 발표하고 있다
이번에 소개할 제품은 스틸시리즈 Aerox 5 스틸시리즈 Aerox 5 Wireles 메이저놀이터 s 게이밍 마우스이다
올해를 끝으로 난 더 이상 안 올 거라고, 메이저놀이터 다음 타자가 정해지면 꼭 말씀드릴 테니 부디 한국에서 자주 뵙자는 말을 빠짐없이 전했다
충남 천안시는 천안에 있는 12개 대학과 함께 대학 연합축제 2024 천안 유니 메이저놀이터 브시티 페스티벌을 개최한다고 9일 밝혔다
메이저놀이터 봄철은 황사 미세먼지와 더불어 꽃가루까지 날아다니면서 호흡기가 약한 사람들에게는 괴로운 계절이다
카멘 더 퍼스트는 명 메이저놀이터 예를 강조한 이벤트였다
지난 3월 교육부가 발표한 교사가 이끄는 교실 혁명을 촉진하는 자율적 메이저놀이터 수업 혁신 지원 방안은 두 가지 문제의식을 전제하고 있다
최대 4억원의 시세차익이 예상되는 경기 하남시 감일지구의 아파트 무순위 청약에 57만7000여명의 청약자가 몰 메이저놀이터 렸다
프로야구 삼성 라이온즈의 내야수 류지혁(30)이 LG 트윈스와 경기 중 부상으 메이저놀이터 로 경기 도중 병원으로 이송됐다
1만 원은 줘야 제사상에 올릴 메이저놀이터 사과 한 알을 살 수 있는 고물가 시대다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령과의 정상회담 메이저놀이터 을 마친 뒤 극동 하바롭스크주로 이동 중인 것으로 전해졌다
좋은 도시란 젊은이가 거리를 메이저놀이터 걸으며 자신의 미래에 대한 영감을 얻을 수 있는 곳이다
르세라핌, 원펀맨 등 여러 메이저놀이터 독특한 콜라보를 선보였던 오버워치가 이번엔 카우보이 비밥과 만났다
정부가 경량 인공지능(AI)과 PIM(프로세싱 인 메모리) 반도체 등 개 메이저놀이터 발과 이를 활용한 AI 서비스 확산에 나선다
충남 아산 메이저놀이터 의 한 석재회사 직원이 거대한 고무대야에 자갈을 넣고 물을 뿌려 박박 닦는 영상이 공개돼 화제다
상습적으로 메이저놀이터 음주 운전을 한 40대가 항소심에서도 실형을 선고받았다
LG전자 사내벤처 엑스업의 이용수 대표가 지난 20일 마곡 LG사이언스파크에서 열린 스튜디오341 데모데이에서 골프장 코스관리 솔루션을 소개하고 있다 메이저놀이터
이번 달 메이저놀이터 안으로 정책서민금융 채무조정 이용자 중 비정규 소득자나 무직자는 필수적으로 취업지원을 받는다
지난 4월 말, 브라질의 한 인디 게임 개발사가 만든 게임 라투즈(R 메이저놀이터 ATUZ)가 국내 유명 게임 스트리머들의 입소문을 타고 반짝 인지도를 올렸던 일이 있습니다
제주 용항포는 종달리와 하도리 사이에 있는 메이저놀이터 포구다
시크릿랩 PlushCell 메모리폼 암레스트 커버 색상은 블랙, 실버, 핑크를 취급하 메이저놀이터 고 있어 사용자가 구비하고 있는 제품과의 조화를 고려하여 구매할 수 있다
레드랩게임즈가 개발하고 카카오게임즈가 함께 서비스하는 롬: 메이저놀이터 리멤버 오브 마제스티(이하 롬)이 2월 27일 정식 출시된다
캡콤이 오 메이저놀이터 는 3월 22일에 정식 출시 예정인 신작 드래곤즈 도그마2의 국내 미디어 쇼케이스를 5일 개최했다
위메이드가 미르 시리즈의 최신작인 미르5를 발표하고 메이저놀이터 아트 데모 영상을 공개했다
부산 KCC의 슈퍼팀 위용이 봄 농구 들어 메이저놀이터 비로소 완성됐다
지난 3월 교육부가 발표한 교사가 이끄는 교실 혁명을 촉진하는 자율적 메이저놀이터 수업 혁신 지원 방안은 두 가지 문제의식을 전제하고 있다
정부가 전면 재개발이 어려운 노후 저층 주거지의 재개발 속도를 앞당기기 위해 뉴:빌리지 사업에도 메이저놀이터 패스트트랙 제도를 도입키로 했다
시크릿랩 PlushCell 메모리폼 암레스트 커버 색상은 블랙, 실버, 핑크를 취급하 메이저놀이터 고 있어 사용자가 구비하고 있는 제품과의 조화를 고려하여 구매할 수 있다
올해 타이베이 게임쇼에는 메이저놀이터 다양한 인디 게임들이 출품됐습니다
LG이노텍이 성능을 대폭 강화한 고성능 라이다(LiDAR 메이저놀이터 )를 앞세워 자동차 첨단운전지원시스템(ADAS) 센싱 시장 공략에 박차를 가한다
제22대 국회의 메이저놀이터 원 선거 당일인 10일에는 낮 최고 21도로 평년 이맘때 날씨가 예상된다
한빛소프트는 금일(16일), 오는 2월 22일 출시 예정인 자체 개발 모바일 MMORPG 그라나도 에스파다 M의 게임 소개 영 메이저놀이터 상을 공개했다
하나은행이 금융감독원의 홍콩H지수 주가연계증권(ELS) 분쟁조정기준안을 수용하고 자율배상에 나서기로 27일 이사회에서 메이저놀이터 결의했다
프로야구 KIA가 새 외국인 투수 제임스 네일(사진)의 환상투를 메이저놀이터 앞세워 개막 3연승을 달렸다
정부가 먹거리 물가 부담 완화를 위해 추진 중인 농산물 납품단가 지원 사업 메이저놀이터 이 서울시 16개 시장으로 확대된다
국민의힘이 또다시 MBC를 검 메이저놀이터 찰에 고발했습니다
사과를 발효해 만든 사과 사이다 식초(Apple Cider Vinegar 애플 사이다 비네거)는 정말 체 메이저놀이터 중감량에 효과가 있을까
하나은행이 금융감독원의 홍콩H지수 주가연계증권(ELS) 분쟁조정기준안을 수용하고 자율배상에 나서기로 27일 이사회에서 메이저놀이터 결의했다
올해 타이베이 게임쇼에는 메이저놀이터 다양한 인디 게임들이 출품됐습니다
7일 서울 서초구 빗썸 고객센터에 비 메이저놀이터 트코인 가격이 표시되고 있다
상습적으로 메이저놀이터 음주 운전을 한 40대가 항소심에서도 실형을 선고받았다
김정은 북한 국무위원장과 블라디미르 푸틴 메이저놀이터 러시아 대통령의 정상회담을 계기로 양국이 농업 건설 부문에서 공동 프로젝트를 진행하기로 했다
조규홍 보건복지부 장관이 8일 오전 정부세종청사에서 열린 의사 집단행동 중앙재난안전대책본부 회의를 주재하고 있 메이저놀이터 다
미국여자프로골프(LPGA) 메이저놀이터 투어에서 4개 대회 연속 우승은 4명만 달성한 대기록이다
한국시간 9일 새벽 개기일식이 멕시코 미국 캐나다 동부를 메이저놀이터 가로질러 발생해 미국 전역에서 화제가 됐다
붉은사막이 직접 구동되는 것을 본 시 메이저놀이터 간은 약 30분이었다
인디계에 한 획을 그었던 컵헤드가 5 솔루션 분양 년만에 DLC로 다시 돌아왔습니다
한국시간 9일 새벽 개기일식이 멕 솔루션 분양 시코 미국 캐나다 동부를 가로질러 발생해 미국 전역에서 화제가 됐다
윤석열 대통령이 8일 용산 대통령실에서 열린 스 메이저놀이터 타트업 청년과의 오찬 간담회에서 발언하고 있다
X 메이저놀이터 D가 개발 중인 SRPG 신작, 소드 오브 콘발라리아가 지난 2월 29일부터 3월 8일까지 한국 CBT를 진행했다
술에 취해 대리기사를 때리고, 운전대를 메이저놀이터 잡은 50대 남성이 경찰에 덜미를 잡혔다
이주형이 지난 7일 고척 한화전에서 결정적인 호수비를 한 뒤 더 메이저놀이터 그아웃에 들어와 기뻐하고 있다
미국 방문을 앞두고 있는 기시다 후미오 메이저놀이터 (岸田文雄) 일본 총리가 김정은 북한 국무위원장과의 정상회담을 위해 고위급 접근을 하고 있다고 밝혔다
조국 조국혁신당 대표가 28일 대구 중구 동성로에서 지지자와 함께 피켓을 메이저놀이터 들고 있다
거주 중인 구축 빌라 벽에 적힌 거지 동네 낙서 메이저놀이터 를 본 30대 가장이 씁쓸함을 토로했다
하이브IM의 신작, 별이되어라2: 베다의 기사들(이하 별되2) 메이저놀이터 의 파이널 트레일러가 공개됐다
플린트가 개발하고 하이브IM이 퍼블리싱하는 별이되어라2: 메이저놀이터 베다의 기사들이 4월 2일 정식 출시됐다
국민의힘이 또다시 MBC를 검찰에 고발했 메이저놀이터 습니다
권오갑 HD현대 회장(앞줄 가운데)이 조 메이저놀이터 선소 협력사에서 근무하는 외국인 노동자들과 기념촬영을 하고 있다
부산항 신항 서컨테이너부두 2-5단계 동원글로벌터미널부산(DGT, 부산항 신항 7부두)은 마치 스마트 물류센터와 같은 메이저놀이터 모습을 자랑한다
좋은 도시란 젊은이가 거리를 메이저놀이터 걸으며 자신의 미래에 대한 영감을 얻을 수 있는 곳이다
하이브IM의 신작, 별이되어라2: 베다의 기사들(이하 별되2) 메이저놀이터 의 파이널 트레일러가 공개됐다
한국시간 9일 새벽 개기일식이 멕시코 미국 캐나다 동부를 메이저놀이터 가로질러 발생해 미국 전역에서 화제가 됐다
상습적으로 음주 운전을 한 40대가 항소심에서도 실 메이저놀이터 형을 선고받았다
메이저놀이터 봄철은 황사 미세먼지와 더불어 꽃가루까지 날아다니면서 호흡기가 약한 사람들에게는 괴로운 계절이다
하나은행이 금융감독원의 홍콩H지수 주가연계증권(ELS) 분쟁조정기준안을 수용하고 자율배상에 나서기로 27일 이사회에서 메이저놀이터 결의했다
조규홍 보건복지부 장관이 8일 오전 정부세종청사에서 열린 의사 집단행동 중앙재난안전대책본부 회의를 주재하고 있 메이저놀이터 다
프로야구 삼성 라이온즈의 내야수 류지혁(30)이 LG 트윈스와 경기 중 부상으 메이저놀이터 로 경기 도중 병원으로 이송됐다
독일의 인디 개발사 이온 랜드(Ion Lands)는 지난 2021년 출시한 클라우드펑크(Clou 메이저놀이터 dpunk)의 후속작, 니발리스(Nivalis)를 올해 중으로 출시할 계획입니다
플레이어스 챔피언십의 사나이 김시우(29 CJ)는 이번 시즌 초반 미국프 메이저놀이터 로골프(PGA) 투어에서 이렇다 할 성적을 내지 못했다
메이저놀이터 마이트 앤 매직은 넓은 오픈 필드와 다양한 퀘스트로 RPG를 이야기할 때 빼놓을 수 없는 작품이다
충남 천안시는 천안에 있는 12개 대학과 함께 대학 연합축제 2024 천안 유니 메이저놀이터 브시티 페스티벌을 개최한다고 9일 밝혔다
그는 현자가 아닐지도, 어쩌면 우자 메이저놀이터 이거나 광인일지도 모른다
이재명 더불어민주당 대표가 지난 8일 서울 메이저놀이터 종로에서 곽상언 후보 지지유세를 하고 있다
메이저놀이터 상습적으로 음주 운전을 한 40대가 항소심에서도 실형을 선고받았다
제22대 국회의원선거 사전투표가 시작된 5일 인천국제공항 제1터미널 메이저놀이터 에 마련된 사전투표소에서 유권자들이 투표하고 있다
정부가 먹거리 물가 부담 완화를 위해 추진 중인 농산물 납품단가 지원 사업 메이저놀이터 이 서울시 16개 시장으로 확대된다
미국여자프로골프(LPGA) 메이저놀이터 투어에서 4개 대회 연속 우승은 4명만 달성한 대기록이다
약 3년 전 설립된 신생 퍼블리셔, 크리티컬 리플렉스는 부스 디자인만큼이나 독특한 게임을 선보이려는 인디 게임 전문 퍼블리셔입 메이저놀이터 니다
70대 증여가 전체의 3분의 1 이상증여받는 30대 늘 메이저놀이터 어 공제 영향서울 송파구 롯데타워 서울 스카이 전망대에서 내려다본 서울 시내
국민의힘이 또다시 MBC를 검 메이저놀이터 찰에 고발했습니다
윤석열 대통령이 15일 인천항 수로에서 열린 제73 메이저놀이터 주년 인천상륙작전 전승행사에서 해군 상륙함 노적봉함에 탑승해 기념사를 하고 있다
XD가 개발 중인 SRPG 신작, 소드 오브 콘발라리 메이저놀이터 아가 지난 2월 29일부터 3월 8일까지 한국 CBT를 진행했다
사과를 발효해 만든 사과 사이다 식초(Apple Cider Vinegar 애플 사이다 비네거)는 정말 체 메이저놀이터 중감량에 효과가 있을까
현대자동차는 인증 중고차와 연계한 보상판매(트레이드-인) 혜택을 이달 현대차 제네시스 9개 차종으로 확대하고 현금 할인액도 늘렸다고 9일 밝 메이저놀이터 혔다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 15일 러시아 하바롭스크주 콤소몰스크나아무레시에 있는 유리 가가린 전투기 생산 공장을 방 메이저놀이터 문했다
국내 연구진이 암세포만 골라 유전자를 편집하는 유 메이저놀이터 전자 가위 크리스퍼 기술을 개발했다
플린트가 개발하고 하이브IM이 퍼블리싱하는 별이되어라2: 메이저놀이터 베다의 기사들이 4월 2일 정식 출시됐다
부산 KCC의 슈퍼팀 위용이 봄 농구 들어 메이저놀이터 비로소 완성됐다
러시아를 방문 중인 김정은 북한 국무위원장이 지난 13일 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령과 회담을 했다고 조선중앙 메이저놀이터 TV가 14일 보도했다
이주형이 지난 7일 고척 한화전에서 결정적인 호수비를 한 뒤 더 메이저놀이터 그아웃에 들어와 기뻐하고 있다
SPC그룹의 파리바게뜨 제빵 기사 민주노총 탈퇴 강요 의혹을 수사 중인 검찰이 허영인 회장을 서울구치소에서 불러 조 메이저놀이터 사하고 있다
카멘 더 퍼스트는 명예를 메이저놀이터 강조한 이벤트였다
하나은행이 금융감독원의 홍콩H지수 주가연계증권(ELS) 분쟁조정기준안을 수용하고 자율배상에 나서기로 27일 이사회에서 메이저놀이터 결의했다
카멘 더 퍼스트는 명 메이저놀이터 예를 강조한 이벤트였다
붉은사막이 직접 구동되는 것을 본 시 메이저놀이터 간은 약 30분이었다
퇴근길에 눈에 띄는 색의 잠바를 걸쳐 입고 메이저놀이터 큰소리로 외치는 소리를 종종 듣는다
러시아를 방문 중인 김정은 북한 국무위원장이 지난 13일 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령과 회담을 했다고 조선중앙 메이저놀이터 TV가 14일 보도했다
정부가 경량 인공지능(AI)과 PIM(프로세싱 인 메모리) 반도체 등 개 메이저놀이터 발과 이를 활용한 AI 서비스 확산에 나선다
XD가 개발 중인 SRPG 신작, 소드 오브 콘발라리 메이저놀이터 아가 지난 2월 29일부터 3월 8일까지 한국 CBT를 진행했다
국내 연구진이 암세포만 골라 유전자를 편집하는 유 메이저놀이터 전자 가위 크리스퍼 기술을 개발했다
슈퍼스타 메이저놀이터 크리스티아누 호날두가 상대와 신경전 중 팔꿈치 가격으로 퇴장을 당했다
시크릿랩 PlushCell 메모리폼 암레스트 커버 색상은 블랙, 실버, 핑크를 취급하 메이저놀이터 고 있어 사용자가 구비하고 있는 제품과의 조화를 고려하여 구매할 수 있다
인요한 국민의미래 선거대책위원장이 9일 여의도 당사에서 대국민 메이저놀이터 본투표 참여호소 회견을 하고 있다
이번에 소개할 제품은 스틸시리즈 Aerox 5 스틸시리즈 Aerox 5 Wireles 메이저놀이터 s 게이밍 마우스이다
붉은사막이 직접 구동되는 것을 본 시 메이저놀이터 간은 약 30분이었다
SPC그룹의 파리바게뜨 제빵 기사 민주노총 탈퇴 강요 의혹을 수사 중인 검찰이 메이저놀이터 허영인 회장을 서울구치소에서 불러 조사하고 있다
메이저놀이터 슈퍼스타 크리스티아누 호날두가 상대와 신경전 중 팔꿈치 가격으로 퇴장을 당했다
SPC그룹의 파리바게뜨 제빵 기사 민주노총 탈퇴 강요 의혹을 수사 중인 검찰이 허영인 회장을 서울구치소에서 불러 조 메이저놀이터 사하고 있다
메이저놀이터 봄철은 황사 미세먼지와 더불어 꽃가루까지 날아다니면서 호흡기가 약한 사람들에게는 괴로운 계절이다
바가지 메이저놀이터 와 막말, 꽃게 바꿔치기 등 부도덕한 상술로 논란의 중심에 섰던 인천 소래포구가 유튜브 촬영에 대해 칼을 빼들었다
LG전자 사내벤처 엑스업의 이용수 대표가 지난 20일 마곡 LG사이언스파크에서 열린 스튜디오341 데모데이에서 골프장 코스관리 솔루션을 소개하고 있다 메이저놀이터
SPC그룹의 파리바게뜨 제빵 기사 민주노총 탈퇴 강요 의혹을 수사 중인 검찰이 허영인 회장을 서울구치소에서 불러 조 메이저놀이터 사하고 있다
레드랩게임즈가 개발하고 카카오게임즈가 함께 서비스하는 롬: 메이저놀이터 리멤버 오브 마제스티(이하 롬)이 2월 27일 정식 출시된다
SPC그룹의 파리바게뜨 제빵 기사 민주노총 탈퇴 강요 의혹을 수사 중인 검찰이 메이저놀이터 허영인 회장을 서울구치소에서 불러 조사하고 있다
올해를 끝으로 난 더 이상 안 올 거라고, 메이저놀이터 다음 타자가 정해지면 꼭 말씀드릴 테니 부디 한국에서 자주 뵙자는 말을 빠짐없이 전했다
외신 클럽 회견윤 대통령을 레임덕나아가 데드덕 메이저놀이터 만들 것조국 조국혁신당 대표가 27일 서울 프레스센터 외신 클럽에서 열린 간담회에서 차를 마시고 있다
국민 메신저로 불리는 카카오톡 이용자 수가 메이저놀이터 감소세를 이어가고 있다
중앙선거관리위원회가 메이저놀이터 또 논란에 휩싸였다
권오갑 HD현대 회장(앞줄 가운데)이 조 메이저놀이터 선소 협력사에서 근무하는 외국인 노동자들과 기념촬영을 하고 있다
부산항 신항 서컨테이너부두 2-5단계 동원글로벌터미널부산(DGT, 부산항 신항 7부두)은 마치 스마트 물류센터와 같은 메이저놀이터 모습을 자랑한다
70대 증여가 전체의 3분의 1 이상증여받는 30대 늘 메이저놀이터 어 공제 영향서울 송파구 롯데타워 서울 스카이 전망대에서 내려다본 서울 시내
연합뉴스정부가 국내 금융 시장에 외국인을 유입시키기 위해 추진했던 한국의 세계국채지수(WGBI) 메이저놀이터 편입이 이번에도 무산됐다
시크릿랩 PlushCell 메모리폼 암레스트 커버 색상은 블랙, 실버, 핑크를 취급하 메이저놀이터 고 있어 사용자가 구비하고 있는 제품과의 조화를 고려하여 구매할 수 있다
제22대 국회의 메이저놀이터 원 선거 당일인 10일에는 낮 최고 21도로 평년 이맘때 날씨가 예상된다
LG전자 사내벤처 엑스업의 이용수 대표가 지난 20일 마곡 LG사이언스파크에서 열린 스튜디오341 데모데이에서 골프장 코스관리 솔루션을 소개하고 있다 메이저놀이터
프랑스 한 소도시의 현직 시장 자택에서 70㎏의 대마 수지(대마 메이저놀이터 진액을 압축한 것)가 발견돼 시장과 그 주변 인물들이 체포됐다
월요일인 8일 전국 대부분 지역 기온이 20도 이상 오르면서 초여름과 메이저놀이터 같은 날씨를 보이겠다
미국 방문을 앞두고 있는 기시다 후미오 메이저놀이터 (岸田文雄) 일본 총리가 김정은 북한 국무위원장과의 정상회담을 위해 고위급 접근을 하고 있다고 밝혔다
지난해 선풍적인 인기를 끌던 탕 메이저놀이터 후루의 기세가 크게 꺾였다
한동훈 국민의힘 비상대책위원장이 지난 5일 서울 동작구 이수역에서 나경원 후보 메이저놀이터 지원유세를 하고 있다
21세기로 들어서며 메이저놀이터 소프트웨어 산업의 거장, 넷스케이프 창업자 마크 앤드리슨은 이런 말을 남겼다
지난 3월 교육부가 발표한 교사가 이끄는 교실 혁명을 촉진하는 자율적 수업 혁신 지원 방안은 두 가지 메이저놀이터 문제의식을 전제하고 있다
약 3년 전 설립된 신생 퍼블리셔, 크리티컬 리플렉스는 부스 디자인만큼이나 독특한 게임을 선보이려는 인디 게임 전문 퍼블리셔입 메이저놀이터 니다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 메이저놀이터 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령과의 정상회담을 마친 뒤 극동 하바롭스크주로 이동 중인 것으로 전해졌다
미국 방문을 앞 메이저놀이터 두고 있는 기시다 후미오(岸田文雄) 일본 총리가 김정은 북한 국무위원장과의 정상회담을 위해 고위급 접근을 하고 있다고 밝혔다
근래 몇 년간 CPU 시장에 메이저놀이터 서는 불꽃 튀는 치열한 경쟁이 이루어졌습니다
⑦ 경기 분당갑지난 26일 경기 분당 야탑역 일대에 안철수 국민의힘 후보와 메이저놀이터 이광재 더불어민주당 후보 현수막이 걸려 있다
서울 종로구가 다 메이저놀이터 음달 31일까지 내년도 예산 반영을 위한 2024년도 주민참여예산 제안사업 공모를 진행한다
퇴근길에 눈에 띄는 색의 잠바를 걸쳐 입고 메이저놀이터 큰소리로 외치는 소리를 종종 듣는다
최대 4억원의 시세차익이 예상되는 경기 하남시 감일지구의 아파트 무순위 청약에 57만7000여명의 청약자가 몰 메이저놀이터 렸다
지구에서 가장 추운 남극의 기온이 계절 평균보다 38 메이저놀이터
조규홍 보건복지부 장관이 8일 오전 정부세종청사에서 열린 의사 집단행동 중앙재난안전대책본부 회의를 주재하고 있 메이저놀이터 다
이번 팍스에서 반드시 해보고 싶었던 게임이 있습니다 메이저놀이터
근래 몇 년간 CPU 시장에 메이저놀이터 서는 불꽃 튀는 치열한 경쟁이 이루어졌습니다
이재명 더불어민주당 대표가 6일 국회 본청앞 천막 단식투쟁장에서 열린 서울 강서구청장 메이저놀이터 보궐선거 공천장 수여식에서 진교훈 후보와 기념촬영을 하고 있다
위메이드가 미르 시리즈의 최신작인 미르5를 발표하고 메이저놀이터 아트 데모 영상을 공개했다
서울 종로구가 다 메이저놀이터 음달 31일까지 내년도 예산 반영을 위한 2024년도 주민참여예산 제안사업 공모를 진행한다
일본 TBS 드라마 에는 한국 배우 채종협이 출연 메이저놀이터 한다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령과의 정상회담 메이저놀이터 을 마친 뒤 극동 하바롭스크주로 이동 중인 것으로 전해졌다
이재명 더불어민주당 대표가 지난 8일 서울 메이저놀이터 종로에서 곽상언 후보 지지유세를 하고 있다
지난 27일 인천 서구의 한 메이저놀이터 과자 보관창고에서 불이 나 연기가 치솟고 있다
지난해 선풍적인 인기를 끌던 탕 메이저놀이터 후루의 기세가 크게 꺾였다
윤석열 대통령이 8일 용산 대통령실에서 열린 스 메이저놀이터 타트업 청년과의 오찬 간담회에서 발언하고 있다
미국 방문을 앞두고 있는 기시다 후미오 메이저놀이터 (岸田文雄) 일본 총리가 김정은 북한 국무위원장과의 정상회담을 위해 고위급 접근을 하고 있다고 밝혔다
최대 4 메이저놀이터 억원의 시세차익이 예상되는 경기 하남시 감일지구의 아파트 무순위 청약에 57만7000여명의 청약자가 몰렸다
봄바람을 타고 나는 도깨비불 불씨는 최대 2㎞까지 날아가는 메이저놀이터 등 산불 확산 속도를 26배까지 빠르게 하는 것으로 나타났다
충남 아산 메이저놀이터 의 한 석재회사 직원이 거대한 고무대야에 자갈을 넣고 물을 뿌려 박박 닦는 영상이 공개돼 화제다
제22대 국회의원선거 사전투표가 시작된 5일 인천국제공항 제1터미널 메이저놀이터 에 마련된 사전투표소에서 유권자들이 투표하고 있다
경기 화 메이저놀이터 성을 지역 후보로 나선 이준석 개혁신당 대표가 시민들과 인사를 나누고 있다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령과의 정상회담 메이저놀이터 을 마친 뒤 극동 하바롭스크주로 이동 중인 것으로 전해졌다
이번에 소개할 제품은 스틸시리즈 Aerox 5 스틸시리즈 Aerox 5 Wireles 메이저놀이터 s 게이밍 마우스이다
70대 증여가 전체의 3분의 1 이상증여받는 30대 늘 메이저놀이터 어 공제 영향서울 송파구 롯데타워 서울 스카이 전망대에서 내려다본 서울 시내
20세 전후로 보이 메이저놀이터 는 청년들이 밤에 장거리 택시를 이용한 후 거액의 요금을 내지 않고 도망가는 일이 발생했다
이번 달 메이저놀이터 안으로 정책서민금융 채무조정 이용자 중 비정규 소득자나 무직자는 필수적으로 취업지원을 받는다
지난 25일 오후 과천 메이저놀이터 중앙선거관리위원회의 선거종합상황실 현황판에 후보자 등록현황 등이 표시돼 있다
메이저놀이터 지난 몇년간 여름철 폭염으로 수만명이 목숨을 잃은 유럽에서 올해도 이상고온 조짐이 보이고 있다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 15일 러시아 하바롭스크주 콤소몰스크나아무레시에 있는 유리 가가린 전투기 생산 공장을 방 메이저놀이터 문했다
정부가 경량 인공지능(AI)과 PIM(프로세싱 인 메모리) 반도체 등 개 메이저놀이터 발과 이를 활용한 AI 서비스 확산에 나선다
국민의힘이 또다시 메이저놀이터 MBC를 검찰에 고발했습니다
중앙선거관리위원회가 메이저놀이터 또 논란에 휩싸였다
메이저놀이터 봄철은 황사 미세먼지와 더불어 꽃가루까지 날아다니면서 호흡기가 약한 사람들에게는 괴로운 계절이다
메이저놀이터 봄철은 황사 미세먼지와 더불어 꽃가루까지 날아다니면서 호흡기가 약한 사람들에게는 괴로운 계절이다
권오갑 HD현대 회장(앞줄 가운데)이 조 메이저놀이터 선소 협력사에서 근무하는 외국인 노동자들과 기념촬영을 하고 있다
더불어 메이저놀이터 민주당이 27일 중앙선거관리위원회에 제출한 총선 10대 정책공약에 비동의 강간죄 도입이 포함된 데 대해 실무적 착오라고 해명했다
인천에 있는 대갈공원과 새갈공원이 주민 민원에 따른 별칭 메이저놀이터 공모를 거쳐 새 이름을 얻었다
최대 4억원의 시세차익이 예상되는 경기 하남시 감일지구의 아파트 무순위 청약에 57만7000여명의 청약자가 몰 메이저놀이터 렸다
지난 5일 고척 키움전에서 조기강판 당한 류현진이 아쉬운 표정으로 더그아 메이저놀이터 웃에 들어가고 있다
마이트 앤 매직은 넓은 오픈 필드와 다양한 퀘스트로 RPG를 이야 메이저놀이터 기할 때 빼놓을 수 없는 작품이다
1만 원은 줘야 제사상에 올릴 메이저놀이터 사과 한 알을 살 수 있는 고물가 시대다
메이저놀이터 15일로 단식 16일차인 이재명 더불어민주당 대표가 국회 당대표실로 지팡이를 짚고 들어가고 있다
메이저놀이터 봄철은 황사 미세먼지와 더불어 꽃가루까지 날아다니면서 호흡기가 약한 사람들에게는 괴로운 계절이다
좋은 도시란 젊은이가 거리를 메이저놀이터 걸으며 자신의 미래에 대한 영감을 얻을 수 있는 곳이다
좋은 기술이나 아이디어를 가지고 있으나, 기업 운 메이저놀이터 영 경험이 부족하고 마케팅 능력이 없어 제대로 꿈을 펴지 못하는 스타트업∙중소기업이 적지 않다
하나은행이 금융감독원의 홍콩H지수 주가연계증권(ELS) 분쟁조정기준안을 수용하고 자율배상에 나서기로 27일 이사회에서 메이저놀이터 결의했다
위메이드가 미르 시리즈의 최신작인 미르5를 발표하고 메이저놀이터 아트 데모 영상을 공개했다
이번 달 메이저놀이터 안으로 정책서민금융 채무조정 이용자 중 비정규 소득자나 무직자는 필수적으로 취업지원을 받는다
X 메이저놀이터 D가 개발 중인 SRPG 신작, 소드 오브 콘발라리아가 지난 2월 29일부터 3월 8일까지 한국 CBT를 진행했다
올해를 끝으로 난 더 이상 안 올 거라고, 메이저놀이터 다음 타자가 정해지면 꼭 말씀드릴 테니 부디 한국에서 자주 뵙자는 말을 빠짐없이 전했다
LG전자 사내벤처 엑스업의 이용수 대표가 지난 20일 마곡 LG사이언스파크에서 열린 스튜디오341 데모데이에서 골프장 코스관리 솔루션을 소개하고 있다 메이저놀이터
가란 메이저놀이터 도는 신안 압해도에 딸린, 섬 속의 섬이다
SPC그룹의 파리바게뜨 제빵 기사 민주노총 탈퇴 강요 의혹을 수사 중인 검찰이 메이저놀이터 허영인 회장을 서울구치소에서 불러 조사하고 있다
일본 TBS 드라마 에는 한국 배우 채종협이 출연 메이저놀이터 한다
지난 25일 오후 과천 메이저놀이터 중앙선거관리위원회의 선거종합상황실 현황판에 후보자 등록현황 등이 표시돼 있다
서울을 떠올릴 수 메이저놀이터 있는 디자인으로 단장한 쓰레기통이 도심 곳곳에 설치된다
김준우 녹색정의당 상임선대위원장이 26일 국회에서 경향신문과 인터뷰를 하고 있다 메이저놀이터
기아 미국판매법인 마케팅담당(상무) 러셀 와거가 더 메이저놀이터 기아 K4를 2024 뉴욕오토쇼에서 소개하고 있다
지난 3월 교육부가 발표한 교사가 이끄는 교실 혁명을 촉진하는 자율적 메이저놀이터 수업 혁신 지원 방안은 두 가지 문제의식을 전제하고 있다
카멘 더 퍼스트는 명예를 메이저놀이터 강조한 이벤트였다
국내 연구진이 암세포만 골라 유전자를 편집하는 유 메이저놀이터 전자 가위 크리스퍼 기술을 개발했다
중앙선거관리위원회가 메이저놀이터 또 논란에 휩싸였다
봄바람을 타고 나는 도깨비불 불씨는 최대 2㎞까지 날아가는 메이저놀이터 등 산불 확산 속도를 26배까지 빠르게 하는 것으로 나타났다
2024총선미디어감시단의 포털 총선보도 모니터 보고서 마 메이저놀이터 지막회를 발간합니다
2024총선미디어감시단의 포털 총선보도 모니터 보고서 마 메이저놀이터 지막회를 발간합니다
메이저놀이터 코그(KOG)의 신작 슈터 리턴 얼라이브의 시네마틱 영상이 27일 공개되었다
지난 4월 말, 브라질의 한 인디 게임 개발사가 만든 게임 라투즈(R 메이저놀이터 ATUZ)가 국내 유명 게임 스트리머들의 입소문을 타고 반짝 인지도를 올렸던 일이 있습니다
국민 메신저로 불리는 카카오톡 이용자 수가 감소세를 이어가 메이저놀이터 고 있다
권오갑 HD현대 회장(앞줄 가운데)이 조 메이저놀이터 선소 협력사에서 근무하는 외국인 노동자들과 기념촬영을 하고 있다
이재명 더불어민주당 대표가 6일 국회 본청앞 천막 단식투쟁장에서 열린 서울 강서구청장 메이저놀이터 보궐선거 공천장 수여식에서 진교훈 후보와 기념촬영을 하고 있다
월요일인 8일 전국 대부분 지역 기온이 20도 이상 오르면서 초여름과 메이저놀이터 같은 날씨를 보이겠다
국민의힘이 또다시 MBC를 검찰에 고발했 메이저놀이터 습니다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령과의 메이저놀이터 정상회담을 마친 뒤 극동 하바롭스크주로 이동 중인 것으로 전해졌다
스타벅스 코리아가 오는 16일까지 본인의 커피 취향 메이저놀이터 을 알 수 있게 돕는 커피 스탬프 행사를 연다고 8일 밝혔다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 메이저놀이터 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령과의 정상회담을 마친 뒤 극동 하바롭스크주로 이동 중인 것으로 전해졌다
인요한 국민의미래 선거대책위원장이 9일 여의도 당사에서 대국민 메이저놀이터 본투표 참여호소 회견을 하고 있다
메이저놀이터 지난 몇년간 여름철 폭염으로 수만명이 목숨을 잃은 유럽에서 올해도 이상고온 조짐이 보이고 있다
인요한 국민의미래 선거대책위원장이 9일 여의도 당사에서 대국민 메이저놀이터 본투표 참여호소 회견을 하고 있다
중앙선거관리위원회가 메이저놀이터 또 논란에 휩싸였다
최대 4 메이저놀이터 억원의 시세차익이 예상되는 경기 하남시 감일지구의 아파트 무순위 청약에 57만7000여명의 청약자가 몰렸다
그는 현자가 아닐지도, 어쩌면 우자 메이저놀이터 이거나 광인일지도 모른다
SPC그룹의 파리바게뜨 제빵 기사 민주노총 탈퇴 강요 의혹을 수사 중인 검찰이 허영인 회장을 서울구치소에서 불러 조 메이저놀이터 사하고 있다
골프가 일반에 대중화하면서 골프를 즐기는 젊은 층이 늘고 메이저놀이터 있다
이재명 더불어민주당 대표가 지난 8일 서울 메이저놀이터 종로에서 곽상언 후보 지지유세를 하고 있다
좋은 기술이나 아이디어를 가지고 있으나, 기업 운 메이저놀이터 영 경험이 부족하고 마케팅 능력이 없어 제대로 꿈을 펴지 못하는 스타트업∙중소기업이 적지 않다
프로야구 KIA가 새 외국인 투수 제임스 네일(사진)의 환상투를 메이저놀이터 앞세워 개막 3연승을 달렸다
지난달 14일 경기도 수원시 경기 메이저놀이터 도의회에서 제22대 국회의원선거 김준혁 더불어민주당 수원정 후보가 공약을 발표하고 있다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 15일 러시아 하바롭스크주 콤소 메이저놀이터 몰스크나아무레시에 있는 유리 가가린 전투기 생산 공장을 방문했다
기아 미국판매법인 마케팅담당(상무) 러셀 와거 메이저놀이터 가 더 기아 K4를 2024 뉴욕오토쇼에서 소개하고 있다
근래 몇 년간 CPU 시장에 메이저놀이터 서는 불꽃 튀는 치열한 경쟁이 이루어졌습니다
메이저놀이터 15일로 단식 16일차인 이재명 더불어민주당 대표가 국회 당대표실로 지팡이를 짚고 들어가고 있다
슈퍼스타 메이저놀이터 크리스티아누 호날두가 상대와 신경전 중 팔꿈치 가격으로 퇴장을 당했다
한빛소프트는 금일(16일), 오는 2월 22일 출시 예정인 자체 개발 모바일 MMORPG 그라나도 에스파다 M의 게임 소개 영 메이저놀이터 상을 공개했다
서울을 떠올릴 수 메이저놀이터 있는 디자인으로 단장한 쓰레기통이 도심 곳곳에 설치된다
기아 미국판매법인 마케팅담당(상무) 러셀 와거가 더 메이저놀이터 기아 K4를 2024 뉴욕오토쇼에서 소개하고 있다
올해를 끝으로 난 더 이상 안 올 거라고, 메이저놀이터 다음 타자가 정해지면 꼭 말씀드릴 테니 부디 한국에서 자주 뵙자는 말을 빠짐없이 전했다
퇴근길에 눈에 띄는 색의 잠바를 걸쳐 입고 메이저놀이터 큰소리로 외치는 소리를 종종 듣는다
월요일인 8일 전국 대부분 지역 기온이 20도 이상 오르면서 초여름과 메이저놀이터 같은 날씨를 보이겠다
권오갑 HD현대 회장(앞줄 가운데)이 조 메이저놀이터 선소 협력사에서 근무하는 외국인 노동자들과 기념촬영을 하고 있다
권오갑 HD현대 회장(앞줄 가운데)이 조 메이저놀이터 선소 협력사에서 근무하는 외국인 노동자들과 기념촬영을 하고 있다
러시아를 방문 중인 김정은 북한 국무위원장이 지난 13일 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령과 회담을 했다고 조선중앙 메이저놀이터 TV가 14일 보도했다
인천에 있는 대갈공원과 새갈공원이 주민 민원에 따른 별칭 메이저놀이터 공모를 거쳐 새 이름을 얻었다
메이저놀이터 마이트 앤 매직은 넓은 오픈 필드와 다양한 퀘스트로 RPG를 이야기할 때 빼놓을 수 없는 작품이다
미국 방문을 앞 메이저놀이터 두고 있는 기시다 후미오(岸田文雄) 일본 총리가 김정은 북한 국무위원장과의 정상회담을 위해 고위급 접근을 하고 있다고 밝혔다
올해 타이베이 게임쇼에는 다양한 인디 게임들이 출품 메이저놀이터 됐습니다
연합뉴스정부가 국내 금융 시장에 외국인을 유입시키기 위해 추진했던 한국의 세계국채지수(WGBI) 메이저놀이터 편입이 이번에도 무산됐다
오랜만에 안아봤는데 너무 귀엽고 메이저놀이터 , 더 잘해줬으면 좋겠습니다
캡콤이 오 메이저놀이터 는 3월 22일에 정식 출시 예정인 신작 드래곤즈 도그마2의 국내 미디어 쇼케이스를 5일 개최했다
골프가 일반에 대중화하면서 골프를 즐기는 젊은 층이 늘고 메이저놀이터 있다
선거운동 첫날 정권심판 당위성 강조천하람 이주영 개혁신당 공동총괄선대위원장(맨 왼쪽 왼쪽에서 세 번째)이 2 메이저놀이터 8일 경기 남양주에서 선거 유세를 하고 있다
충남 서산시 읍내동의 한 숙박시설에서 60대 남성이 숨진 메이저놀이터 채 발견됐다
윤석열 대통령이 15일 인천항 수로에서 열린 제73 메이저놀이터 주년 인천상륙작전 전승행사에서 해군 상륙함 노적봉함에 탑승해 기념사를 하고 있다
경기 화 메이저놀이터 성을 지역 후보로 나선 이준석 개혁신당 대표가 시민들과 인사를 나누고 있다
정부가 먹거리 물가 부담 완화를 위해 추진 중인 농산물 납품단가 지원 사업 메이저놀이터 이 서울시 16개 시장으로 확대된다
정부가 먹거리 물가 부담 완화를 위해 추진 중인 농산물 납품단가 지원 사업 메이저놀이터 이 서울시 16개 시장으로 확대된다
지난 27일 인천 서구의 한 메이저놀이터 과자 보관창고에서 불이 나 연기가 치솟고 있다
정부가 먹거리 물가 부담 완화를 위해 추진 중인 농산물 납품단가 지원 사업 메이저놀이터 이 서울시 16개 시장으로 확대된다
메이저놀이터 슈퍼스타 크리스티아누 호날두가 상대와 신경전 중 팔꿈치 가격으로 퇴장을 당했다
한국 시간으로 금일(1일) 오전, 코나미는 스테이트 오브 플레이를 통해 자 메이저놀이터 사의 호러 게임 프랜차이즈 사일런트 힐 신작의 정보를 공개했습니다
기아 미국판매법인 마케팅담당(상무) 러셀 와거가 더 메이저놀이터 기아 K4를 2024 뉴욕오토쇼에서 소개하고 있다
윤석열 대통령이 15일 인천항 수로에서 열린 제73 메이저놀이터 주년 인천상륙작전 전승행사에서 해군 상륙함 노적봉함에 탑승해 기념사를 하고 있다
붉은사막이 직접 구동되는 것을 본 시 메이저놀이터 간은 약 30분이었다
조규홍 보건복지부 장관이 8일 오전 정부세종청사에서 열린 의사 집단행동 중앙재난안전대책본부 회의를 주재하고 있 메이저놀이터 다
국민의힘이 또다시 MBC를 검 메이저놀이터 찰에 고발했습니다
부산 KCC의 슈퍼팀 위용이 봄 농구 들어 메이저놀이터 비로소 완성됐다
김준우 녹색정의당 상임선대위원장이 26일 국회에서 경향신문과 인터뷰를 하고 있다 메이저놀이터
독일의 인디 개발사 이온 랜드(Ion Lands)는 지난 2021년 출시한 클라우드펑크(Clou 메이저놀이터 dpunk)의 후속작, 니발리스(Nivalis)를 올해 중으로 출시할 계획입니다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 15일 러시아 하바롭스크주 콤소몰스크나아무레시에 있는 유리 가가린 전투기 생산 공장을 방 메이저놀이터 문했다
70대 증여가 전체의 3분의 1 이상증여받는 30대 늘 메이저놀이터 어 공제 영향서울 송파구 롯데타워 서울 스카이 전망대에서 내려다본 서울 시내
지구에서 가장 추운 남극의 기온이 계절 평균보다 38 메이저놀이터
외신 클럽 회견윤 대통령을 레임덕나아가 데드덕 메이저놀이터 만들 것조국 조국혁신당 대표가 27일 서울 프레스센터 외신 클럽에서 열린 간담회에서 차를 마시고 있다
진달래 메이저놀이터 의 연분홍 은은한 색채가 산새의 지저귐과 어울리는 4월 초순에 임실 오봉산에 올랐다
최대 4 메이저놀이터 억원의 시세차익이 예상되는 경기 하남시 감일지구의 아파트 무순위 청약에 57만7000여명의 청약자가 몰렸다
20세 전후로 보이 메이저놀이터 는 청년들이 밤에 장거리 택시를 이용한 후 거액의 요금을 내지 않고 도망가는 일이 발생했다
국민의힘이 또다시 메이저놀이터 MBC를 검찰에 고발했습니다
정부가 전면 재개발이 어려운 노후 저층 주거지의 재개발 속도를 앞당기기 위해 뉴:빌리지 사업에도 메이저놀이터 패스트트랙 제도를 도입키로 했다
국민의힘이 또다시 MBC를 검 메이저놀이터 찰에 고발했습니다
기아 미국판매법인 마케팅담당(상무) 러셀 와거 메이저놀이터 가 더 기아 K4를 2024 뉴욕오토쇼에서 소개하고 있다
서울을 떠올릴 수 메이저놀이터 있는 디자인으로 단장한 쓰레기통이 도심 곳곳에 설치된다
지난 4월 말, 브라질의 한 인디 게임 개발사가 만든 게임 라투즈(R 메이저놀이터 ATUZ)가 국내 유명 게임 스트리머들의 입소문을 타고 반짝 인지도를 올렸던 일이 있습니다
미국 방문을 앞 메이저놀이터 두고 있는 기시다 후미오(岸田文雄) 일본 총리가 김정은 북한 국무위원장과의 정상회담을 위해 고위급 접근을 하고 있다고 밝혔다
가란 메이저놀이터 도는 신안 압해도에 딸린, 섬 속의 섬이다
제22대 국회의원선거 사전투표가 시작된 5일 인천국제공항 제1터미널 메이저놀이터 에 마련된 사전투표소에서 유권자들이 투표하고 있다
충남 서산시 읍내동의 한 숙박시설에서 60대 남성이 숨진 메이저놀이터 채 발견됐다
이번 달 메이저놀이터 안으로 정책서민금융 채무조정 이용자 중 비정규 소득자나 무직자는 필수적으로 취업지원을 받는다
이번 팍스에서 반드시 해보고 싶었던 게임이 있습니다 메이저놀이터
캡콤이 오 메이저놀이터 는 3월 22일에 정식 출시 예정인 신작 드래곤즈 도그마2의 국내 미디어 쇼케이스를 5일 개최했다
지난 6일 30대 남성이 Heli-EMS 메이저놀이터 를 통해 삼척의료원에서 서울 한강섬심병원으로 이송되고 있다
김정은 북한 국무위원장과 블라디미르 푸틴 메이저놀이터 러시아 대통령의 정상회담을 계기로 양국이 농업 건설 부문에서 공동 프로젝트를 진행하기로 했다
부산항 신항 서컨테이너부두 2-5단계 동원글로벌터미널부산(DGT, 부산항 신항 7부두)은 마치 스마트 물류센터와 같은 메이저놀이터 모습을 자랑한다
메이저놀이터 코그(KOG)의 신작 슈터 리턴 얼라이브의 시네마틱 영상이 27일 공개되었다
LG이노텍이 성능을 대폭 강화한 고성능 라이다(LiDAR 메이저놀이터 )를 앞세워 자동차 첨단운전지원시스템(ADAS) 센싱 시장 공략에 박차를 가한다
시프트업의 신작 액션 게임, 스텔라 블레이드의 신규 영상이 공개됐 메이저놀이터 다
정부가 전면 재개발이 어려운 노후 저층 주거지의 재개발 속도를 앞당기기 위해 뉴:빌리지 사업에도 메이저놀이터 패스트트랙 제도를 도입키로 했다
정부가 경량 인공지능(AI)과 PIM(프로세싱 인 메모리) 반도체 등 개 메이저놀이터 발과 이를 활용한 AI 서비스 확산에 나선다
독일의 인디 개발사 이온 랜드(Ion Lands)는 지난 2021년 출시한 클라우드펑크(Clou 메이저놀이터 dpunk)의 후속작, 니발리스(Nivalis)를 올해 중으로 출시할 계획입니다
서울 종로구가 다 메이저놀이터 음달 31일까지 내년도 예산 반영을 위한 2024년도 주민참여예산 제안사업 공모를 진행한다
술에 취해 대리기사를 때리고, 운전대를 메이저놀이터 잡은 50대 남성이 경찰에 덜미를 잡혔다
7일 서울 서초구 빗썸 고객센터에 비 메이저놀이터 트코인 가격이 표시되고 있다
거주 중인 구축 빌라 벽에 적힌 거지 동네 낙서 메이저놀이터 를 본 30대 가장이 씁쓸함을 토로했다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 메이저놀이터 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령과의 정상회담을 마친 뒤 극동 하바롭스크주로 이동 중인 것으로 전해졌다
정부가 메이저놀이터 전면 재개발이 어려운 노후 저층 주거지의 재개발 속도를 앞당기기 위해 뉴:빌리지 사업에도 패스트트랙 제도를 도입키로 했다
2024총선미디어감시단의 포털 총선보도 모니터 보고서 마 메이저놀이터 지막회를 발간합니다
기아 미국판매법인 마케팅담당(상무) 러셀 와거가 더 메이저놀이터 기아 K4를 2024 뉴욕오토쇼에서 소개하고 있다
상습적으로 메이저놀이터 음주 운전을 한 40대가 항소심에서도 실형을 선고받았다
충남 천안시는 천안에 있는 12개 대학과 함께 대학 연합축제 2024 천안 유니 메이저놀이터 브시티 페스티벌을 개최한다고 9일 밝혔다
미국 방문을 앞두고 있는 기시다 후미오 메이저놀이터 (岸田文雄) 일본 총리가 김정은 북한 국무위원장과의 정상회담을 위해 고위급 접근을 하고 있다고 밝혔다
2024총선미디어감시단의 포털 총선보도 모니터 보고서 마 메이저놀이터 지막회를 발간합니다
윤석열 대통령이 8일 용산 대통령실에서 열린 스 메이저놀이터 타트업 청년과의 오찬 간담회에서 발언하고 있다
르세라핌, 원펀맨 등 여러 메이저놀이터 독특한 콜라보를 선보였던 오버워치가 이번엔 카우보이 비밥과 만났다
국민의힘이 또다시 MBC를 검찰에 고발했 메이저놀이터 습니다
제22대 국회의 메이저놀이터 원 선거 당일인 10일에는 낮 최고 21도로 평년 이맘때 날씨가 예상된다
더불어 메이저놀이터 민주당이 27일 중앙선거관리위원회에 제출한 총선 10대 정책공약에 비동의 강간죄 도입이 포함된 데 대해 실무적 착오라고 해명했다
검찰민원 처리에 불 메이저놀이터 만을 품고 노동청 직원에게 9개월 동안 파면시키겠다
가란 메이저놀이터 도는 신안 압해도에 딸린, 섬 속의 섬이다
충남 서산시 읍내동의 한 숙박시설에서 60대 남성이 숨진 메이저놀이터 채 발견됐다
더불어 메이저놀이터 민주당이 27일 중앙선거관리위원회에 제출한 총선 10대 정책공약에 비동의 강간죄 도입이 포함된 데 대해 실무적 착오라고 해명했다
오랜만에 안아봤는데 너무 귀엽고 메이저놀이터 , 더 잘해줬으면 좋겠습니다
2024총선미디어감시단의 포털 총선보도 모니터 보고서 마 메이저놀이터 지막회를 발간합니다
근래 몇 년간 CPU 시장에 메이저놀이터 서는 불꽃 튀는 치열한 경쟁이 이루어졌습니다
최대 4억원의 시세차익이 예상되는 경기 하남시 감일지구의 아파트 무순위 청약에 57만7000여명의 청약자가 몰 메이저놀이터 렸다
한국 시간으로 금일(1일) 오전, 코나미는 스테이트 오브 플레이를 통해 자 메이저놀이터 사의 호러 게임 프랜차이즈 사일런트 힐 신작의 정보를 공개했습니다
인요한 국민의미래 선거대책위원장이 9일 여의도 당사에서 대국민 메이저놀이터 본투표 참여호소 회견을 하고 있다
70대 증여가 전체의 3분의 1 이상증여받는 30대 늘 메이저놀이터 어 공제 영향서울 송파구 롯데타워 서울 스카이 전망대에서 내려다본 서울 시내
마이트 앤 매직은 넓은 오픈 필드와 다양한 퀘스트로 RPG를 이야 메이저놀이터 기할 때 빼놓을 수 없는 작품이다
SPC그룹의 파리바게뜨 제빵 기사 민주노총 탈퇴 강요 의혹을 수사 중인 검찰이 허영인 회장을 서울구치소에서 불러 조 메이저놀이터 사하고 있다
한빛소프트는 금일(16일), 오는 2월 22일 출시 예정인 자체 개발 모바일 MMORPG 그라나도 에스파다 M의 게임 소개 영 메이저놀이터 상을 공개했다
슈퍼스타 메이저놀이터 크리스티아누 호날두가 상대와 신경전 중 팔꿈치 가격으로 퇴장을 당했다
지난 27일 인천 서구의 한 메이저놀이터 과자 보관창고에서 불이 나 연기가 치솟고 있다
문화체육관광부(장관 유인촌)가 지난 13일 확률형 메이저놀이터 아이템 정보공개 시행령을 발표했다
카멘 더 퍼스트는 명예를 메이저놀이터 강조한 이벤트였다
7일 서울 서초구 빗썸 고객센터에 비 메이저놀이터 트코인 가격이 표시되고 있다
독일의 인디 개발사 이온 랜드(Ion Lands)는 지난 2021년 출시한 클라우드펑크(Clou 메이저놀이터 dpunk)의 후속작, 니발리스(Nivalis)를 올해 중으로 출시할 계획입니다
슈퍼스타 메이저놀이터 크리스티아누 호날두가 상대와 신경전 중 팔꿈치 가격으로 퇴장을 당했다
그는 현자가 아닐지도, 어쩌면 우자 메이저놀이터 이거나 광인일지도 모른다
지난 3월 교육부가 발표한 교사가 이끄는 교실 혁명을 촉진하는 자율적 메이저놀이터 수업 혁신 지원 방안은 두 가지 문제의식을 전제하고 있다
지난달 14일 경기도 수원시 경기 메이저놀이터 도의회에서 제22대 국회의원선거 김준혁 더불어민주당 수원정 후보가 공약을 발표하고 있다
부산 KCC의 슈퍼팀 위용이 봄 농구 들어 메이저놀이터 비로소 완성됐다
20세 전후로 보이 메이저놀이터 는 청년들이 밤에 장거리 택시를 이용한 후 거액의 요금을 내지 않고 도망가는 일이 발생했다
부산 KCC의 슈퍼팀 위용이 봄 농구 들어 메이저놀이터 비로소 완성됐다
김정은 북한 국무위원장과 블라디미르 푸틴 메이저놀이터 러시아 대통령의 정상회담을 계기로 양국이 농업 건설 부문에서 공동 프로젝트를 진행하기로 했다
2024총선미디어감시단의 포털 총선보도 모니터 보고서 마 메이저놀이터 지막회를 발간합니다
지난 6일 30대 남성이 Heli-EMS 메이저놀이터 를 통해 삼척의료원에서 서울 한강섬심병원으로 이송되고 있다
박광온 더불어민주당 메이저놀이터 원내대표가 14일 국회에서 열린 의원총회에서 발언을 하고 있다
좋은 도시란 젊은이가 거리를 걸으며 자신의 미래에 메이저놀이터 대한 영감을 얻을 수 있는 곳이다
봄바람을 타고 나는 도깨비불 불씨는 최대 2㎞까지 날아가는 메이저놀이터 등 산불 확산 속도를 26배까지 빠르게 하는 것으로 나타났다
서울 종로구가 다 메이저놀이터 음달 31일까지 내년도 예산 반영을 위한 2024년도 주민참여예산 제안사업 공모를 진행한다
7일 서울 서초구 빗썸 고객센터에 비 메이저놀이터 트코인 가격이 표시되고 있다
⑦ 경기 분당갑지난 26일 경기 분당 야탑역 일대에 안철수 국민의힘 후보와 메이저놀이터 이광재 더불어민주당 후보 현수막이 걸려 있다
SPC그룹의 파리바게뜨 제빵 기사 민주노총 탈퇴 강요 의혹을 수사 중인 검찰이 허영인 회장을 서울구치소에서 불러 조 메이저놀이터 사하고 있다
LG이노텍이 성능을 대폭 강화한 고성능 라이다(LiDAR 메이저놀이터 )를 앞세워 자동차 첨단운전지원시스템(ADAS) 센싱 시장 공략에 박차를 가한다
프로야구 KIA가 새 외국인 투수 제임스 네일(사진)의 환상투를 메이저놀이터 앞세워 개막 3연승을 달렸다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령과의 정상회담 메이저놀이터 을 마친 뒤 극동 하바롭스크주로 이동 중인 것으로 전해졌다
좋은 기술이나 아이디어를 가지고 있으나, 기업 운 메이저놀이터 영 경험이 부족하고 마케팅 능력이 없어 제대로 꿈을 펴지 못하는 스타트업∙중소기업이 적지 않다
지난 5일 고척 키움전에서 조기강판 당한 류현진이 아쉬운 표정으로 더그아 메이저놀이터 웃에 들어가고 있다
지난 4월 말, 브라질의 한 인디 게임 개발사가 만든 게임 라투즈(RATUZ)가 국내 유명 게임 스트리머들의 입소문을 타고 반짝 인지도를 올렸던 일이 있습니 메이저놀이터 다
한빛소프트는 금일(16일), 오는 2월 22일 출시 예정인 자체 개발 모바일 MMORPG 그라나도 에스파다 M의 게임 소개 영 메이저놀이터 상을 공개했다
이번 팍스에서 반드시 해보고 싶었던 게임이 있습니다 메이저놀이터
What an eye-opening read, will be reflecting on this.
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Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Shares of Donald Trump’s media and technology firm fell as much as 12% on Monday, extending a selloff that has now reduced the value of his stake in the operator of Truth Social to $2.9 billion.After its strong debut in late March, investors have soured on Trump Media & Technology Group after the company disclosed millions of dollars in losses earlier this month and said it would struggle to meet its financial liabilities.The company’s stock closed 8.4% lower at $37.17 on Monday, a far cry from the record high of $79 it had notched during its debut on March 26. It is down about 40% so far in April.The declines are reducing a potential windfall for Trump who could sell his shares to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign and legal expenses, although lock-up restrictions for six months could prevent him from selling or borrowing against his shareholding.Former U.S. President Trump – who owns about 78.75 million shares in the company – has seen a sharp slide in the valuation of his stake from around $6 billion last month.The market value of whole of Trump Media & Technology Group is now below that figure, at about $5.55 billion.But the declines are welcome news for short-sellers who have suffered hefty losses on the stock so far this year.Trump Media & Technology Group has a short interest of about 4.75 million shares, or 12% of its free float, according to analytics firm S3 Partners.Monday’s decline meant those betting against the stock made about $16 million in market-to-market profits, though those shorting the stock are still down 69% for the year.”DJT’s recent price weakness has offset the huuuuge financing costs short sellers are incurring and keeping many of them in the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed anger over the expulsion from a Republican gathering this weekend of an experienced politics reporter who was told that the state party chairman “believes current reporting to be very unfair.”Journalists and prominent politicians, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish and against current state GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who said he had “no apologies” for ejecting Fish.The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term “fake news.” The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state’s 4th Congressional District race, partly because “Deb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she’s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.”The post was a direct reply to Flora’s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was “wrong and a violation of the First Amendment.”The chairman, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams,” is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a “fake journalist” and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked by text for examples, Williams did not respond. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.“I invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,” said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. “The Founding Fathers weren’t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.”The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.“There are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,” Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.“I am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady and I’ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,” said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she’d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he’d get back to her.“Thanks. I’ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,” Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn’t be included on the press list and that “the state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.”“I went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,” said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff’s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.“We make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,” Williams said in a text. “Her publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party’s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.”Grossman, in a text, said Fish’s actions were “a selfish political stunt.”Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: “Sandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I’m embarrassed by the GOP chair.”Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as “hard-hitting but fair. … This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). … Transparency is necessary for our nation.”Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams’ leadership paid for mailers that subtly attacked one of Williams’ primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed under his chairmanship.Security video captured most of an ambush at an Idaho hospital that left three corrections officers with gunshot wounds and allowed a white supremacist prison gang member to escape, a police detective testified Monday.The testimony from Matthew Canfield, a violent crimes detective with the Boise Police Department, came during a preliminary hearing for Skylar Meade, the inmate charged with escaping from a hospital last month when an accomplice opened fire on guards who had been transporting him back to prison.Nicholas Umphenour, who police say did the shooting, and Tia Garcia, who is accused of having provided the car the pair used to escape, had their preliminary hearings set for April 29.Prosecutors did not play the surveillance video in court but submitted it as an exhibit. Magistrate Judge Abraham Wingrove found that there was enough evidence to send the case against Meade to district court. His arraignment was set for April 17.Video clips show three Department of Correction officers escorting Meade to the prison transport van from the emergency department when they “are approached by another individual who appears to point an object at them and shoot and fire rounds at them,” Canfield said.The video also shows Meade and the shooter running to a parked vehicle, which they used to flee, Canfield said.Part of the encounter is blocked by the prison transport van itself, Canfield said.Investigators have also obtained video from a private ambulance that was parked in the emergency bay during the escape.The attack on the corrections officers came just after 2 a.m. on March 20 in the ambulance bay of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Meade was brought to the hospital earlier in the night because he injured himself, officials said, but he refused treatment upon arrival.Two corrections officers were wounded in the attack and a third was shot by responding police officers who mistook him for the gunman. All are expected to recover.Meade and Umphenour are each being held on $2 million bail. Authorities said they are also suspected of killing two men during their 36 hours on the run — one in Clearwater County and one in Nez Perce County, both about a seven-hour drive north of where they were arrested in Twin Falls, Idaho. No charges have been filed in the deaths.The victims have been identified as James L. Mauney, 83, of Juliaetta, Idaho, who was reported missing when he failed to return from walking his dogs, and Gerald Don Henderson, 72, who was found dead outside his remote cabin near Orofino, Idaho.Henderson had taken in Umphenour for about a month when he was in his late teens, according to authorities. Police said Umphenour and Meade stole Mauney’s minivan and used it to get to the Twin Falls area.Idaho Department of Correction officials have said Meade and Umphenour are members of the Aryan Knights white supremacist prison gang, which federal prosecutors have described as a “scourge” in the state’s penitentiary system.Meade, 31, was serving 20 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, south of Boise, for shooting at a sheriff’s sergeant during a chase. Umphenour was released from the same lockup in January after serving time for theft and gun convictions.The two were at times housed together and had mutual friends in and out of prison, officials said. Meade recently had been held in solitary confinement because officials deemed him a security risk.One other person has been charged in connection with the escape: Tonia Huber, who was driving the truck Meade was in when he was arrested, according to investigators. Huber has been charged with harboring a fugitive, eluding police and drug possession.The man charged with setting a fire outside the Vermont office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had been staying at an area hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to court paperwork filed by a federal agent.Shant Michael Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, entered the building on Friday and went to Sanders’ third-floor office where security video showed him dumping a liquid on the bottom of the door and setting it afire with a lighter, according to the special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and sprinklers that doused the area with water, but no one was hurt. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate.The agent who investigated spotted what appeared to be the remains of a canister of lighter fluid and a red cap on the floor near the office door.Soghomonian was arrested Sunday on a charge of using fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce, according to the U.S. attorney for Vermont. He had been staying at the Inn at Burlington in South Burlington for several weeks, an employee told authorities, according to the affidavit.When police knocked on the hotel room door, they heard a male saying he was getting dressed, according to an application to search the hotel room and a vehicle with New York plates. Officers then heard what sounded like the man dragging heavy items near the door. Officers got a key and attempted to open the door but it was blocked, according to the court document. They forced the door open and arrested Soghomonian without incident, they said.Sanders said in a statement that he is “deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire” and thankful that none of the people in the office were hurt.The motive remained unclear. It was not immediately known if Soghomonian had a lawyer, and an initial court appearance had not been set, officials said. A phone message left with the Chittenden County public defenders’ office was not immediately returned. Soghomonian was being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.The case was investigated by police departments in Burlington, Shelburne and Williston; Vermont State Police; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Capitol Police, officials said.CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas said early on Tuesday Israel’s proposal that it received from Qatari and Egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of Palestinian factions.However, the group added in a statement it would study the proposal, which it described as “intransigent”, and deliver its response to the mediators.A Hamas official told Reuters on Monday that the group has rejected the Israeli ceasefire proposal made at talks in Cairo, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a date was set for an invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.Israel and Hamas sent teams to Egypt on Sunday for talks that included Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.Burn’s presence underlined rising pressure from Israel’s main ally the U.S. for a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and get aid to Palestinian civilians left destitute by six months of conflict.But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We reject the latest Israeli proposals that the Egyptian side informed us of. The politburo met today and decided this.”Another Hamas official had earlier told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.”There is no change in the position of the occupation (Israel) and therefore, there is nothing new in the Cairo talks,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “There is no progress yet.”Israel said it was keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal, by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it wasn’t ready to end the military offensive before it invaded Rafah.Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to Israeli military offensive, get Israeli forces out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to their homes across the enclave.Rafah is the last refuge for Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods. It is also the last significant redoubt of Hamas combat units, Israel says.More than one million people are crammed into the southern city in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel against storming Rafah for fears of a bloodbath.”We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.”This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. It will happen – there is a date.” He did not specify the date.Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.As a deadly tornado barreled toward their home in the Mississippi Delta, Ida Cartlidge only had time to scoop up her 1-year-old son, Nolan, and hold him close.Cartlidge huddled with her husband and three sons on the living room floor of their Rolling Fork mobile home, its thin walls all that separated the family from 200 mph (320 kph) winds.“I was holding my baby so tight. I said ‘Baby, I’m probably hurting you right now, but I just can’t let you go,’” she recalled.Then the tornado hit, and the home was gone. The twister launched Cartlidge into the air and pulled Nolan from her arms. She remembers seeing him floating above her, as though both were suspended in the air.She landed with a thud. Miraculously, Nolan fell on her chest. He was the only family member to escape the storm unscathed.The tornado that destroyed Cartlidge’s home last March killed 14 of Rolling Fork’s roughly 1,700 residents and reduced the town to rubble as it charted a merciless path across one of the country’s poorest regions. For the people there, a complicated story of struggle and resilience has emerged in the year since the storm changed everything and exposed vulnerabilities many survivors had been dealing with long before March 2023.The Cartlidge family spent the next year in a cramped motel room in search of a more permanent home, like many of their displaced neighbors.“There’s still a lot of suffering,” Sen. Joseph Thomas, who represents Rolling Fork in the state Legislature, said in a recent interview. “And you’re looking at an area that was already depressed.”Rolling Fork is in Sharkey County, where the poverty rate hovers around 35% — nearly double Mississippi’s roughly 19% rate and triple the nation’s nearly 12% rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Before the storm, Cartlidge, 33, and her husband, Charles Jones, 59, had forged a quiet life in a long, narrow three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with their sons: Jakavien, 13, Amarii, 12, and Nolan. She worked in customer service for an appliance company and Jones was a mechanic for a local auto parts shop.Cartlidge suffered a crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in the tornado. Jakavien punctured a lung and shattered bones in his spine and shoulder blade. Amarri had deep lacerations on his back and ankles. Jones injured his ribs and spine.The mobile home park where they lived was also home to most of the 14 people who died in the tornado. Large families crowded into one- or two-bedroom units, which helped offset the financial strain endemic to a region where stable jobs are scarce.Sharkey County lost nearly 400 jobs after the tornado, according to Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker. The tornado laid waste to about 300 structures, including numerous homes and businesses, which meant lost tax revenue for the city, he said. In February 2024, Walker wrote to Thomas pleading for additional state funds.The city’s infrastructure suffered millions of dollars in damage. Public buildings, streets and the city’s sewer and drainage systems either sustained severe damage or were destroyed. One year after the tornado, buildings throughout town remain boarded up, and the remnants of destroyed properties dot the landscape.The local high school remains closed because of lingering damage, leaving students to ride buses to nearby towns. Destroyed vehicles still hinder residents’ ability to navigate their daily lives.“People were displaced from their transportation networks,” said William Keith, who worked on disaster response for the American Red Cross. “A lot of people went to the grocery store with their neighbor next door, or they had a buddy a couple blocks away, and then went to work with them.”After everyone was discharged from the hospital, the Cartlidge family moved into a two-bed motel room only minutes down the highway from where their mobile home used to be. The Rolling Fork Motel is a one-story brick building with green doors and a bright yellow sign that looms over Route 61, known as the “Blues Highway.”Music is integral to Rolling Fork’s history. Blues legend Muddy Waters is a native son. The highway running through town symbolizes the genre’s popular theme of packing up and leaving one’s troubles behind, according to the Mississippi Blues Commission.Convincing locals to stay is a harder proposition these days.More than 70% of Rolling Fork residents displaced by the tornado were renters. Housing assistance programs run by nonprofits stepped in after the tornado, but most are geared toward homeowners rather than renters or people who lived with family members, Thomas said.Queen’terica Jones, 23, lived with her mother, Erica “Nikki” Moore, and three children in a mobile home just down the street from the Cartlidge place. On the evening of the tornado, she found her mother’s lifeless body facedown amid the rubble.Jones had no legal rights to her mother’s property and didn’t have the documents required by many programs that financed new mobile homes for displaced residents. Objects that had previously seemed ordinary — housing documents, family heirlooms, tax returns — suddenly took on life-altering significance for her.“It’s a hard period. From losing your mom to having to start all over again,” Jones said. “Jesus, that’s a whole lot.”Without stable work and housing, Jones has moved between the homes of friends and family members since the storm. It’s a common story in Rolling Fork, where public services and steady work that had always been elusive grew even more scarce in the storm’s aftermath.“Towns such as Rolling Fork generally have a smaller tax base with fewer economic resources to respond and recover from such disasters,” said Ryan Thomson, a professor of rural sociology at Auburn University. “Federal and state aid oftentimes lag behind local needs.”Nonprofits, the state and the federal government rallied to help. But if the assistance doesn’t address some of the town’s lingering needs, officials fear an exodus is likely.“We are striving for a better Rolling Fork,” Walker wrote in his letter to Thomas. “And the chance to keep our people in this town.”The Red Cross paid for extended stays at the Rolling Fork Motel for displaced residents, and for months, volunteers clad in red vests doled out groceries and supplies to weary residents. They stacked whatever the storm hadn’t carried off in corners and made room for donated packages of Cup Noodles and Capri Sun.For nearly a full year in that cramped motel room, the Cartlidge family lived with only basic necessities. But they had owned their destroyed mobile home, making them eligible for a new one through a nonprofit called Samaritan’s Purse.In February, they moved into a renovated trailer near downtown, with a “Home Sweet Home” mat greeting them at the door. They cried in each other’s arms upon seeing the property.That night, Ida served the children popcorn and soda on a platter and they all watched horror films — none as scary as the nightmare they’d lived through together a year earlier.Then they went to bed, each in their own room.The Vatican on Monday declared gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy as grave violations of human dignity, putting them on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that it said reject God’s plan for human life.The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.From a pope who has made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community a hallmark of his papacy, the document was received as a setback, albeit predictable, by trans Catholics. But its message was also consistent with the Argentine Jesuit’s long-standing belief that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, so-called “gender ideologies” should not.In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document said.It distinguished between gender-affirming surgeries, which it rejected, and “genital abnormalities” that are present at birth or that develop later. Those abnormalities can be “resolved” with the help of health care professionals, it said.Advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics immediately criticized the document as outdated, harmful and contrary to the stated goal of recognizing the “infinite dignity” of all of God’s children. They warned it could have real-world effects on trans people, fueling anti-trans violence and discrimination.“While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved, it does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.Nicolete Burbach, lead expert in social and environmental justice at the London Jesuit Centre, said the document showed the Vatican continues to fail to engage with queer and feminist approaches to the body “which it simply dismisses as supposedly subjecting both the body and human dignity itself to human whims.”“I think the main difficulty faced by the document is that it attempts to affirm the church’s authentic commitment to human dignity in the face of a troubling history on the part of the church itself around attacks on that dignity,” said Burbach, a trans Catholic theologian who researches transness and the Catholic Church.The document’s existence, rumored since 2019, was confirmed in recent weeks by the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, a close Francis confidant.Fernández had cast the document as something of a nod to conservatives after he authored a more explosive document approving blessings for same-sex couples that sparked criticism from conservative bishops around the world, especially in Africa.And yet, in an apparent attempt at balance, the document takes pointed aim at countries — including many in Africa — that criminalize homosexuality. It echoed Francis’ assertion in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime.”The new document denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.”The White House said President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was “pleased” to see that the declaration “furthers the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ (individuals) are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.On the specifics involving gender theory, Jean-Pierre stressed that it was not Biden’s role to “litigate internal church policy.”Asked how its negative take on trans people squared with Francis’ message of welcome, Fernández said the welcome remained but that the pope fervently believed that the idea that gender was fluid “rather than helping to recognize dignity, impoverishes the vision” of a man and woman coming together to create new life.The document is something of a repackaging of previously articulated Vatican positions, read now through the prism of human dignity. It restates well-known Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and euthanasia, and adds to the list some of Francis’ main concerns as pope: the threats to human dignity posed by poverty, war, human trafficking, the death penalty and forced migration.In a newly articulated position, it says surrogacy violates both the dignity of the surrogate mother and the child.While much attention about surrogacy has focused on possible exploitation of poor women as surrogates, the Vatican asserts that the child “has the right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin and to receive the gift of a life that manifests both the dignity of the giver and that of the receiver.”“Considering this, the legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a ‘right to a child’ that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life,” it said.The Vatican had previously published its most articulated position on gender in 2019, when the Congregation for Catholic Education rejected the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisted on the complementarity of biologically male and female sex organs to create new life.The new document from the more authoritative Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith quotes from that 2019 education document, but tempers the tone. Significantly, it doesn’t repeat Vatican doctrine that homosexual people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual actions are “intrinsically disordered.”In a news conference to introduce the document, Fernández acknowledged that the “intrinsically disordered” language was very strong. He suggested there might be a better way, “with other words,” to express the church’s vision of sex between husband and wife to create new life.Francis has ministered to trans Catholics, including trans sex workers, and insisted that the Catholic Church must welcome all children of God.But he has also denounced “gender theory” as the “worst danger” facing humanity today, an “ugly ideology” that threatens to cancel out God-given differences between man and woman. He has blasted in particular what he calls the “ideological colonization” of the West in the developing world, where development aid is sometimes conditioned on adopting Western ideas about gender.Transgender activists immediately called the document “hurtful” and devoid of the voices and experiences of real trans people, especially in the distinction it makes between gender-affirming surgeries and surgeries on intersex people.“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and (God) — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Mara Klein, a nonbinary, transgender activist who has participated in Germany’s church reform project.Klein said the Vatican “hypocrisy” was furthered by the document’s approval of surgery on intersex people, “which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm.”The document comes at a time of some backlash against transgender people, including in the United States where Republican-led state legislatures are considering a new round of bills restricting medical care for transgender youths — and in some cases, adults.“On top of the rising hostility towards our communities, we are faced with a church that does not listen and refuses to see the beauty of creation that can be found in our biographies,” Klein said in an email.Poland’s local and regional elections over the weekend failed to give Prime Minister Donald Tusk the sweeping victory he had hoped for in his efforts to reverse eight years of rule by a populist party that was accused by the European Union of eroding democratic norms.Exit polls released after voting closed Sunday show that Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition did well in big cities, where it is popular with social liberals. However, the opposition Law and Justice party won more votes in elections for the country’s 16 regional assemblies, maintaining its dominance in conservative rural areas in eastern Poland.The elections were a test for Tusk four months after he returned to power as prime minister, a job he held previously from 2007-2014.He won on promises to restore judicial independence and democratic guardrails after changes to the judiciary led the EU to cut billions of euros in funding to Poland.Funding is being restored but Tusk still faces a difficult path. New laws must be passed to reverse many of the judicial changes. Meanwhile his vow to liberalize the country’s strict abortion law is being hampered by conservatives within his governing coalition.The results from Sunday’s vote show that Poland remains deeply divided and that Tusk continues to face a formidable opponent in the conservative Law and Justice party and in its 74-year-old leader Jarosław Kaczyński.Some had dismissed Law and Justice after they lost power at the national level last year. But on Monday it was clear that the party, which ruled from 2015-2023, remains a force even though it’s lost some of the advantages it had when in power. That includes control over public media, a tool it used for years to push party propaganda. Tusk’s government stripped his opponents’ political control over taxpayer-funded media in one of its earliest moves.According to an exit poll by Ipsos, Law and Justice won 33.7% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition 31.9%. The state electoral committee was still counting votes on Monday.Tusk also has reasons to be pleased following the election.His allies won key mayoral roles, including in the capital. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski celebrated a sweeping reelection victory, with nearly 60% of the votes won on Sunday. That puts him in a strong position ahead of an expected run for the presidency next year, when President Andrzej Duda will finish his second and final term. Trzaskowski, now 52, barely lost to Duda in the 2020 presidential race.Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition, was also projected to increase its control over the regional assemblies. The parties in his national governing coalition — which includes the Third Way and the Left — together won about 52%.The Third Way was projected to get 13.5%, a solid result for a new electoral group that includes an agrarian party and is conservative on social issues. But it was a poor showing for the Left, which was projected to win just 6.8%.Tusk, in a post on social platform X early Monday, said he was happy about his party’s “record victory in cities” and the new advantage it had gained in the regional assemblies. But he expressed worries about “demobilization, especially among young people, failure in the east and in the countryside.A ransomware attack that has affecting New Mexico Highlands University for nearly a week so far has caused officials to cancel classes through Tuesday.It’s the latest in a string of cyberattacks targeting state entities.New Mexico Highland’s Information Technology Services department identified a technology issue on April 3, verifying a few days later that the network issue stemmed from a ransomware attack.The hack caused the Las Vegas, New Mexico, university to cancel all classes from Wednesday afternoon, through Tuesday, as of Monday afternoon.The attack was identified on the server that operates the college’s internal portal for staff, students and faculty, university spokesperson David Lepre said, which is necessary in order to conduct classes.Lepre said a majority of the campus also accesses payroll through the college’s network, so New Mexico Highlands set up a help center for people to log their time via phone instead. The university is working to make sure employees and student employees get paid on time, according to an online page with updates on the cyberattack.New Mexico Highlands is still investigating the ransomware attack and then can start mitigation work once officials know the full extent of the hack, Lepre said.He said the university has been working with the state’s Department of Information Technology and the Higher Education Department to resolve the issue.”We’re just working as fast as we can to restore service as soon as possible to the campus community,” he said.There should be another update from the university on the status of the attack Tuesday afternoon, Lepre said.He said that according to New Mexico Highlands University’s vendors, which specialize in cybersecurity and mitigation, the school isn’t the first state entity to be attacked by this specific group. He said he personally didn’t have the name of the entity and it wouldn’t be in the public interest to publicize it anyway.Last week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order focused on enhancing cybersecurity protection among state agencies. She wrote in the order that “a surge in cybersecurity breaches and hacks poses a severe threat to the integrity of sensitive information held by state agencies.”The order directs the state’s IT department to conduct IT and security assessments on state agencies. By Nov. 1, state agencies have to comply with specific security protocols from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.In the order, Lujan Grisham encouraged public bodies that weren’t required to follow the cybersecurity rules to do so anyway.”Cybersecurity is not just a technological issue; it’s a matter of public safety and national security,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve taken decisive action to fortify the resilience of our state agencies against potential cyber intrusions.”A cybersecurity measure was one of the few bills that got through lawmakers in the most recent Legislature but not the governor. It was one of two pocket-vetoed bills.Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, previously told the Journal if he’s reelected, he plans to introduce a larger, more comprehensive IT package next year that would include the 2024 session bill, which he believed needed more work.A woman was arrested after performing multiple doughnuts inside a Hobby Lobby parking lot and then leading police on a car chase in Northeast Albuquerque.Kathryn Edmiston, 21, of Albuquerque is being charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing law enforcement and reckless driving, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said.She is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if she has an attorney.Edmiston’s arrest was part of APD’s citywide illegal street racing operation, which resulted in officers breaking up three separate events over the weekend and issuing 38 citations in the Valley, Northeast and Northwest Area Commands, Atkins said.According to police, one of the events involved Edmiston in Northeast Albuquerque.A criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court states that on March 30, an APD officer saw a driver in a white Dodge Charger — later identified as Edmiston — do doughnuts inside the Hobby Lobby parking lot, near Montgomery and Eubank.The complaint states the officer then put their lights and sirens on to “affect a stop” for reckless driving, but instead, Edmiston did “one or two more” doughnuts before fleeing onto Eubank at a “high rate of speed.”According to police, she accelerated south on Eubank and turned off her lights. The vehicle was later found traveling southbound on Interstate 25, where the driver got onto Interstate 40 and before getting off at the Louisiana exit.The complaint states she again turned off her vehicle lights and sped southbound on Louisiana before turning into a residential area. Other officers saw the vehicle near Eubank and Montgomery and identified her as the driver through a photo provided by the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.On Friday, Edmiston was arrested inside a Maverick gas station in the 5000 block of Jefferson after officers noticed her parked vehicle, according to police.The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York has approved a questionnaire for jury selection and instructions for prospective jurors in the trial, which is set to begin next week.In a letter Monday, state Judge Juan Merchan provided attorneys in the case with a jury questionnaire that consists of 42 numbered questions on a range of topics. The form does not ask about party affiliation, political contributions or voting history.Merchan pushed back against a contention by Trump’s attorneys that potential jurors’ political affiliations and whether they like Trump is important to jury selection, saying that “contrary to defense counsel’s arguments, the purpose of jury selection is not to determine whether a prospective juror likes or does not like one of the parties.””Such questions are irrelevant because they do not go to the issue of the prospective juror’s qualifications,” Merchan wrote. “The ultimate issue is whether the prospective juror can ensure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”The form asks prospective jurors numerous questions, including:Their neighborhoods, professions, employers (present and past), marital status, hobbies and interests, and relationships with others who have been victims of crimes or, alternatively, have worked in places like the FBI or prosecutors’ offices or in criminal lawWhether because “political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions” they would be unable to follow the judge’s instructions or render a verdictWhether they’ve read any of either Mark Pomerantz’s or Michael Cohen’s books about the alleged crimes and/or the investigation that led to the hush money case and whether what they have read or heard via audiobook “affects your ability to be a fair or impartial juror in this case”About their personal, familial or close friends’ ties to Trump or the Trump Organization before it addresses whether they have engaged in certain activities that would reflect political support for Trump or “any anti-Trump group or organization” and/or extremist movementsWhether they practice “a religion that would prevent you from sitting as a juror on any particular weekday or weeknight”; Merchan noted in his letter that if any observant Jews are selected as jurors, the court will not convene during PassoverWhat they read, watch and listen to in terms of media consumption, followed by a list of options to check, including The New York Times, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, as well as CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax and social media platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok and Truth Social.Merchan suggested in his letter that the question of political affiliation “may easily be gleaned from the responses to other questions” but warned the attorneys in the case “not to seek to expand the degree of intrusion beyond what is relevant and has already been approved.”Attorneys for Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.The dispute over political preferences has also been raised in Trump’s classified documents case in Florida, with his lawyers and prosecutors battling over disclosures about political affiliation in a questionnaire for prospective jurors there.Trump pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last year after he was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.In addition to detailing the jury questions, Merchan also said Monday that prospective jurors will be informed before they enter the courtroom that they will be identified by the numbers printed on their jury summonses “as a necessary measure to ensure anonymity.”Merchan ruled last month that he will use an anonymous jury, effectively shielding jurors’ names from the media and the public, citing “a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).”In Monday’s letter, Merchan said the court won’t conduct individual interviews with prospective jurors who say they’re unable to serve, saying the step is “unnecessary, time consuming, and of no benefit” to the case.The jury questionnaire and instructions come the same day a state appeals court judge rejected Trump’s effort to delay the trial, which is set to begin April 15 with jury selection.Fifty animals were removed from a home in Butler County after two dogs were found dead in garbage bags.The gruesome discovery was made on Friday afternoon when a deputy stopped to let his K-9 out.The criminal complaint said a Butler County Sheriff’s deputy stopped at the Vagabonds event center off Whitestown Road in Butler Township to let his K-9 out. That K-9 immediately sniffed out two garbage bags.Each garbage had a dead German Shepherd inside. Both were severely underweight, and a veterinarian determined they were starved to death.Police said the dogs had collars that were traced back to Paul Frederick.Audrey Clark grew up on the street where Frederick lives and is familiar with the family.“I think that’s absolutely disgusting. That’s foul,” Clark said. “There’s nothing that you can really say to justify that. There is a million other things that they could’ve done if they didn’t want the animals except for starving them. “Neighbors told Channel 11 the Fredericks are pet breeders and occasionally cater out of the Vagabonds venue, about five miles away from their home in Connoquenessing Township.The criminal complaint said when police questioned Frederick, he claimed he didn’t know how the dogs died.Channel 11 tried to talk to Frederick’s wife at their home but she was too emotional and told us, “No comment.”On Saturday, April 6, the day after the horrific discovery, police got a search warrant and seized 50 animals from the home, including dogs, cats, pigs, goats and ducks.Norman Herald lives next door to the Fredericks.“They’re good people,” Herald said. “I was shocked. I was really shocked because they don’t bother nobody and as far as I know they take good care of their animals.”Herald said he doesn’t think Frederick would kill his dogs.“No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “Definitely, I don’t believe that.”Other neighbors believe he should be held accountable.“He should definitely be charged, and those charges should stick,” said Clark. “Personally, I think you should be in jail.”All the animals taken out of the home were brought to Anna Shelter in Erie.Paul Frederick is charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest.A 45-year-old driver was held without bail after being accused of striking and killing a pedestrian over the weekend and then hitting the victim with a brick in the head more than 20 times.Vasco Semedo of Brockton wore handcuffs as he faced a judge during his arraignment on Monday, and listened through an interpreter as a prosecutor detailed a bloody and brutal attack on pedestrian Stuart Smith, 50, who died of injuries he suffered after Saturday’s incident.Semedo was behind the wheel of a blue Toyota RAV 4 and hit Smith twice with his SUV on North Main Street on Saturday morning before getting out of the vehicle and attacking Smith with a brick, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in court.Both the pedestrian crash and the brick attack were captured on surveillance video, Sprague said. She added that Semedo accelerated his SUV, and appeared to have hit Smith with the vehicle intentionally. Some debris fell onto the SUV after it struck a building nearby.That’s when, according to Sprague, Semedo unleashed a violent assault on the victim as he lay injured on the ground until bystanders intervened.“He got out of the car. He took a brick off the hood of the car. He went over to where the victim was laying on the ground, and struck him in the head with that brick over 20 times,” Sprague said. “Bystanders had to pull him away. He fought back against the bystanders. Several times he tried to get back into his car, but the bystanders would not let him leave the scene.Around 8:52 a.m. Saturday, police responded to the area of 65 North Main St. after receiving a 911 call reporting a vehicle striking a pedestrian, Sprague said.When officers arrived, witnesses told police that the driver of a blue Toyota RAV4, later identified as Semedo, had struck the victim, Smith, with his vehicle twice, “and then he got out of his car and struck the victim in the head with a brick,” Sprague said.Semedo was arrested at the scene and brought to the police station for booking. There, he told officers he had been out with friends at a bar drinking the night before, and had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, Sprague said.Hours later, at 7 a.m., he told police he left his home to go to work. He told police that he tried to park his car in front of the homeless shelter at 54 North Main St., and then he gave several different versions of the pedestrian crash to police, Sprague said.First, Semedo told police that “he accidentally hit the gas on his vehicle and struck either a person or a dog,” Sprague said. “Then he changed that and said it was a woman that he struck, and then changed that to say it was a doll he had struck.”Semedo then told investigators that “he didn’t know person he had hit but he had seen the person a few times in the past,” Sprague said. In yet another account, Semedo told police he accidentally hit the gas and hit a blue metal pole.During his interview with police, Semedo had “blood on his clothing and his hands,” Sprague said.When officers asked him about the blood, “He froze initially, then he said ‘Made a mistake,’ and then he said that the blood was from the person that he hit with his car,” the prosecutor said.Police found Smith unresponsive on the pavement in front of the RAV4. Neighbors said Smith lived nearby in a boarding house.Surveillance video obtained by investigators show Smith, the victim, walking along the sidewalk before he suffered fatal injuries. According to Sprague, the video shows Semedo’s car turn left on North Main Street and then stop. The vehicle initially appears to let Smith pass by.“As the victim is about to clear the car, Semedo accelerates, and appears to purposely hit the victim,” Sprague said. “The victim lands in the parking lot, and the car then goes and strikes a metal pole to the right.”Then, Semedo opened the driver’s side door, closed the door and then put the SUV in reverse. Smith, who had gotten up, began walking and stumbling towards a building, “appearing injured or dazed,” Sprague said.Semedo then “drove his vehicle directly at the victim as (Smith) ran away from the car, striking him for a second time,” Sprague said, adding that Semedo then allegedly got out of the SUV and began attacking Smith with a brick.A blue Toyota RAV4 with front-end damage was seen at the crash scene on Saturday, parked in a parking lot in an area surrounded by yellow police tape. A building nearby was also damaged and a utility pole was knocked over.Prosecutors said Semedo does not appear to have a prior criminal record. A native of Cape Verde, he has been in the United States lawfully for about two years, Sprague said.The pedestrian death in Brockton is the latest fatal crash involving a pedestrian and apparent road rage in Massachusetts.Over the weekend, 26-year-old Destini Decoff died of her injuries after authorities said a driver struck her during an apparent road rage incident near a pub in Hopkinton last week. Ryan Sweatt, 36, of Milford is accused of striking Decoff with his car near Cornell’s Irish Pub on Hayden Rowe Street in Hopkinton around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
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1인 개발사 썬더폭스 스튜디오가 개발중인 인디 게임 문베이스 람다는 1비트 메이저놀이터 디더링 그래픽을 활용한 서바이벌 호러 게임입니다
LG전자 사내벤처 엑스업의 이용수 대표가 지난 20일 마곡 LG사이언스파크에서 열린 스튜디오341 데모데이에서 골프장 코스관리 솔루션을 소개하고 있다 메이저놀이터
서울을 떠올릴 수 메이저놀이터 있는 디자인으로 단장한 쓰레기통이 도심 곳곳에 설치된다
조규홍 보건복지부 장관이 8일 오전 정부세종청사에서 열린 의사 집단행동 중앙재난안전대책본부 회의를 주재하고 있 메이저놀이터 다
최대 4 메이저놀이터 억원의 시세차익이 예상되는 경기 하남시 감일지구의 아파트 무순위 청약에 57만7000여명의 청약자가 몰렸다
메이저놀이터 코그(KOG)의 신작 슈터 리턴 얼라이브의 시네마틱 영상이 27일 공개되었다
외신 클럽 회견윤 대통령을 레임덕나아가 데드덕 메이저놀이터 만들 것조국 조국혁신당 대표가 27일 서울 프레스센터 외신 클럽에서 열린 간담회에서 차를 마시고 있다
충남 아산 메이저놀이터 의 한 석재회사 직원이 거대한 고무대야에 자갈을 넣고 물을 뿌려 박박 닦는 영상이 공개돼 화제다
선거운동 첫날 정권심판 당위성 강조천하람 이주영 개혁신당 공동총괄선대위원장(맨 왼쪽 왼쪽에서 세 번째)이 2 메이저놀이터 8일 경기 남양주에서 선거 유세를 하고 있다
프로야구 KIA가 새 외국인 투수 제임스 네일(사진)의 환상투를 메이저놀이터 앞세워 개막 3연승을 달렸다
21세기로 들어서며 메이저놀이터 소프트웨어 산업의 거장, 넷스케이프 창업자 마크 앤드리슨은 이런 말을 남겼다
메이저놀이터 슈퍼스타 크리스티아누 호날두가 상대와 신경전 중 팔꿈치 가격으로 퇴장을 당했다
LG전자 사내벤처 엑스업의 이용수 대표가 지난 20일 마곡 LG사이언스파크에서 열린 스튜디오341 데모데이에서 골프장 코스관리 솔루션을 소개하고 있다 메이저놀이터
프로야구 KIA가 새 외국인 투수 제임스 네일(사진)의 환상투를 메이저놀이터 앞세워 개막 3연승을 달렸다
정부가 메이저놀이터 전면 재개발이 어려운 노후 저층 주거지의 재개발 속도를 앞당기기 위해 뉴:빌리지 사업에도 패스트트랙 제도를 도입키로 했다
LG이노텍이 성능을 대폭 강화한 고성능 라이다(LiDAR 메이저놀이터 )를 앞세워 자동차 첨단운전지원시스템(ADAS) 센싱 시장 공략에 박차를 가한다
메이저놀이터 코그(KOG)의 신작 슈터 리턴 얼라이브의 시네마틱 영상이 27일 공개되었다
지난 6일 30대 남성이 Heli-EMS 메이저놀이터 를 통해 삼척의료원에서 서울 한강섬심병원으로 이송되고 있다
메이저놀이터 슈퍼스타 크리스티아누 호날두가 상대와 신경전 중 팔꿈치 가격으로 퇴장을 당했다
서울을 떠올릴 수 메이저놀이터 있는 디자인으로 단장한 쓰레기통이 도심 곳곳에 설치된다
지난 3월 교육부가 발표한 교사가 이끄는 교실 혁명을 촉진하는 자율적 메이저놀이터 수업 혁신 지원 방안은 두 가지 문제의식을 전제하고 있다
근래 메이저놀이터 몇 년간 CPU 시장에서는 불꽃 튀는 치열한 경쟁이 이루어졌습니다
정부가 먹거리 물가 부담 완화를 위해 추진 중인 농산물 납품단가 지원 사업 메이저놀이터 이 서울시 16개 시장으로 확대된다
윤석열 대통령이 8일 용산 대통령실에서 열린 스 메이저놀이터 타트업 청년과의 오찬 간담회에서 발언하고 있다
슈퍼스타 메이저놀이터 크리스티아누 호날두가 상대와 신경전 중 팔꿈치 가격으로 퇴장을 당했다
이재명 더불어민주당 대표가 지난 8일 서울 메이저놀이터 종로에서 곽상언 후보 지지유세를 하고 있다
윤석열 대통령이 15일 인천항 수로에서 열린 제73 메이저놀이터 주년 인천상륙작전 전승행사에서 해군 상륙함 노적봉함에 탑승해 기념사를 하고 있다
그는 현자가 아닐지도, 어쩌면 우자 메이저놀이터 이거나 광인일지도 모른다
한동훈 국민의힘 비상대책위원장이 지난 5일 서울 동작구 이수역에서 나경원 후보 메이저놀이터 지원유세를 하고 있다
외신 클럽 회견윤 대통령을 레임덕나아가 데드덕 메이저놀이터 만들 것조국 조국혁신당 대표가 27일 서울 프레스센터 외신 클럽에서 열린 간담회에서 차를 마시고 있다
정부가 경량 인공지능(AI)과 PIM(프로세싱 인 메모리) 반도체 등 개 메이저놀이터 발과 이를 활용한 AI 서비스 확산에 나선다
XD가 개발 중인 SRPG 신작, 소드 오브 콘발라리 메이저놀이터 아가 지난 2월 29일부터 3월 8일까지 한국 CBT를 진행했다
이번에 소개할 제품은 스틸시리즈 Aerox 5 스틸시리즈 Aerox 5 Wireles 메이저놀이터 s 게이밍 마우스이다
김정은 북한 국무위원장과 블라디미르 푸틴 메이저놀이터 러시아 대통령의 정상회담을 계기로 양국이 농업 건설 부문에서 공동 프로젝트를 진행하기로 했다
메이저놀이터 봄철은 황사 미세먼지와 더불어 꽃가루까지 날아다니면서 호흡기가 약한 사람들에게는 괴로운 계절이다
최대 4억원의 시세차익이 예상되는 경기 하남시 감일지구의 아파트 무순위 청약에 57만7000여명의 청약자가 몰 메이저놀이터 렸다
스타벅스 코리아가 오는 16일까지 본인의 커피 취향 메이저놀이터 을 알 수 있게 돕는 커피 스탬프 행사를 연다고 8일 밝혔다
지난 3월 교육부가 발표한 교사가 이끄는 교실 혁명을 촉진하는 자율적 메이저놀이터 수업 혁신 지원 방안은 두 가지 문제의식을 전제하고 있다
제주 용항포는 종달리와 하도리 사이에 있는 메이저놀이터 포구다
가란 메이저놀이터 도는 신안 압해도에 딸린, 섬 속의 섬이다
하나은행이 금융감독원의 홍콩H지수 주가연계증권(ELS) 분쟁조정기준안을 수용하고 자율배상에 나서기로 27일 이사회에서 메이저놀이터 결의했다
연합뉴스정부가 국내 금융 시장에 외국인을 유입시키기 위해 추진했던 한국의 세계국채지수(WGBI) 메이저놀이터 편입이 이번에도 무산됐다
1인 개발사 썬더폭스 스튜디오가 개발중인 인디 게임 문베이스 람다는 1비트 메이저놀이터 디더링 그래픽을 활용한 서바이벌 호러 게임입니다
국내 연구진이 암세포만 골라 유전자를 편집하는 유 메이저놀이터 전자 가위 크리스퍼 기술을 개발했다
올해를 끝으로 난 더 이상 안 올 거라고, 메이저놀이터 다음 타자가 정해지면 꼭 말씀드릴 테니 부디 한국에서 자주 뵙자는 말을 빠짐없이 전했다
지난 25일 오후 과천 메이저놀이터 중앙선거관리위원회의 선거종합상황실 현황판에 후보자 등록현황 등이 표시돼 있다
시프트업의 신작 액션 게임, 스텔라 블레이드의 신규 영상이 공개됐 메이저놀이터 다
XD가 개발 중인 SRPG 신작, 소드 오브 콘발라리 메이저놀이터 아가 지난 2월 29일부터 3월 8일까지 한국 CBT를 진행했다
국민의힘이 또다시 MBC를 검찰에 고발했 메이저놀이터 습니다
지난 5일 고척 키움전에서 조기강판 당한 류현진이 아쉬운 표정으로 더그아 메이저놀이터 웃에 들어가고 있다
정부가 먹거리 물가 부담 완화를 위해 추진 중인 농산물 납품단가 지원 사업 메이저놀이터 이 서울시 16개 시장으로 확대된다
하나은행이 금융감독원의 홍콩H지수 주가연계증권(ELS) 분쟁조정기준안을 수용하고 자율배상에 나서기로 27일 이사회에서 메이저놀이터 결의했다
기시다 후미오 일본 총리가 김정은 북한 국무위원장과의 정상회담 메이저놀이터 을 위해 북한 측과 고위급 접근을 진행 중이라고 밝혔다
21세기로 들어서며 메이저놀이터 소프트웨어 산업의 거장, 넷스케이프 창업자 마크 앤드리슨은 이런 말을 남겼다
근래 몇 년간 CPU 시장에 메이저놀이터 서는 불꽃 튀는 치열한 경쟁이 이루어졌습니다
프로야구 KIA가 새 외국인 투수 제임스 네일(사진)의 환상투를 메이저놀이터 앞세워 개막 3연승을 달렸다
그는 현자가 아닐지도, 어쩌면 우자 메이저놀이터 이거나 광인일지도 모른다
김준우 녹색정의당 상임선대위원장이 26일 국회에서 경향신문과 인터뷰를 하고 있다 메이저놀이터
연합뉴스정부가 국내 금융 시장에 외국인을 유입시키기 위해 추진했던 한국의 세계국채지수(WGBI) 메이저놀이터 편입이 이번에도 무산됐다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 15일 러시아 하바롭스크주 콤소 메이저놀이터 몰스크나아무레시에 있는 유리 가가린 전투기 생산 공장을 방문했다
지난 6일 30대 남성이 Heli-EMS 메이저놀이터 를 통해 삼척의료원에서 서울 한강섬심병원으로 이송되고 있다
인천에 있는 대갈공원과 새갈공원이 주민 민원에 따른 별칭 메이저놀이터 공모를 거쳐 새 이름을 얻었다
인천에 있는 대갈공원과 새갈공원이 주민 민원에 따른 별칭 메이저놀이터 공모를 거쳐 새 이름을 얻었다
사과를 발효해 만든 사과 사이다 식초(Apple Cider Vinegar 애플 사이다 비네거)는 정말 체 메이저놀이터 중감량에 효과가 있을까
카멘 더 퍼스트는 명 메이저놀이터 예를 강조한 이벤트였다
기아 미국판매법인 마케팅담당(상무) 러셀 와거가 더 메이저놀이터 기아 K4를 2024 뉴욕오토쇼에서 소개하고 있다
플린트가 개발하고 하이브IM이 퍼블리싱하는 별이되어라2: 메이저놀이터 베다의 기사들이 4월 2일 정식 출시됐다
좋은 도시란 젊은이가 거리를 걸으며 자신의 미래에 메이저놀이터 대한 영감을 얻을 수 있는 곳이다
중앙선거관리위원회가 메이저놀이터 또 논란에 휩싸였다
한국 시간으로 금일(1일) 오전, 코나미는 스테이트 오브 플레이를 통해 자 메이저놀이터 사의 호러 게임 프랜차이즈 사일런트 힐 신작의 정보를 공개했습니다
이번에 소개할 제품은 스틸시리즈 Aerox 5 스틸시리즈 Aerox 5 Wireles 메이저놀이터 s 게이밍 마우스이다
부산항 신항 서컨테이너부두 2-5단계 동원글로벌터미널부산(DGT, 부산항 신항 7부두)은 마치 스마트 물류센터와 같은 메이저놀이터 모습을 자랑한다
위메이드가 미르 시리즈의 최신작인 미르5를 발표하고 메이저놀이터 아트 데모 영상을 공개했다
연합뉴스정부가 국내 금융 시장에 외국인을 유입시키기 위해 추진했던 한국의 세계국채지수(WGBI) 메이저놀이터 편입이 이번에도 무산됐다
선거운동 첫날 정권심판 당위성 강조천하람 이주영 개혁신당 공동총괄선대위원장(맨 왼쪽 왼쪽에서 세 번째)이 2 메이저놀이터 8일 경기 남양주에서 선거 유세를 하고 있다
캡콤이 오 메이저놀이터 는 3월 22일에 정식 출시 예정인 신작 드래곤즈 도그마2의 국내 미디어 쇼케이스를 5일 개최했다
XD가 개발 중인 SRPG 신작, 소드 오브 콘발라리 메이저놀이터 아가 지난 2월 29일부터 3월 8일까지 한국 CBT를 진행했다
근래 메이저놀이터 몇 년간 CPU 시장에서는 불꽃 튀는 치열한 경쟁이 이루어졌습니다
정부가 전면 재개발이 어려운 노후 저층 주거지의 재개발 속도를 앞당기기 위해 뉴:빌리지 사업에도 메이저놀이터 패스트트랙 제도를 도입키로 했다
지난달 14일 경기도 수원시 경기 메이저놀이터 도의회에서 제22대 국회의원선거 김준혁 더불어민주당 수원정 후보가 공약을 발표하고 있다
진달래 메이저놀이터 의 연분홍 은은한 색채가 산새의 지저귐과 어울리는 4월 초순에 임실 오봉산에 올랐다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령과의 메이저놀이터 정상회담을 마친 뒤 극동 하바롭스크주로 이동 중인 것으로 전해졌다
메이저놀이터 15일로 단식 16일차인 이재명 더불어민주당 대표가 국회 당대표실로 지팡이를 짚고 들어가고 있다
국내 연구진이 암세포만 골라 유전자를 편집하는 유 메이저놀이터 전자 가위 크리스퍼 기술을 개발했다
시크릿랩 PlushCell 메모리폼 암레스트 커버 색상은 블랙, 실버, 핑크를 취급하 메이저놀이터 고 있어 사용자가 구비하고 있는 제품과의 조화를 고려하여 구매할 수 있다
미국여자프로골프(LPGA) 메이저놀이터 투어에서 4개 대회 연속 우승은 4명만 달성한 대기록이다
SPC그룹의 파리바게뜨 제빵 기사 민주노총 탈퇴 강요 의혹을 수사 중인 검찰이 메이저놀이터 허영인 회장을 서울구치소에서 불러 조사하고 있다
좋은 도시란 젊은이가 거리를 메이저놀이터 걸으며 자신의 미래에 대한 영감을 얻을 수 있는 곳이다
LG전자 사내벤처 엑스업의 이용수 대표가 지난 20일 마곡 LG사이언스파크에서 열린 스튜디오341 데모데이에서 골프장 코스관리 솔루션을 소개하고 있다 메이저놀이터
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령과의 메이저놀이터 정상회담을 마친 뒤 극동 하바롭스크주로 이동 중인 것으로 전해졌다
최대 4억원의 시세차익이 예상되는 경기 하남시 감일지구의 아파트 무순위 청약에 57만7000여명의 청약자가 몰 메이저놀이터 렸다
인천에 있는 대갈공원과 새갈공원이 주민 민원에 따른 별칭 메이저놀이터 공모를 거쳐 새 이름을 얻었다
윤석열 대통령이 15일 인천항 수로에서 열린 제73 메이저놀이터 주년 인천상륙작전 전승행사에서 해군 상륙함 노적봉함에 탑승해 기념사를 하고 있다
국내 연구진이 암세포만 골라 유전자를 편집하는 유 메이저놀이터 전자 가위 크리스퍼 기술을 개발했다
메이저놀이터 봄철은 황사 미세먼지와 더불어 꽃가루까지 날아다니면서 호흡기가 약한 사람들에게는 괴로운 계절이다
좋은 도시란 젊은이가 거리를 메이저놀이터 걸으며 자신의 미래에 대한 영감을 얻을 수 있는 곳이다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 15일 러시아 하바롭스크주 콤소 메이저놀이터 몰스크나아무레시에 있는 유리 가가린 전투기 생산 공장을 방문했다
한국시간 9일 새벽 개기일식이 멕시코 미국 캐나다 동부를 메이저놀이터 가로질러 발생해 미국 전역에서 화제가 됐다
지구에서 가장 추운 남극의 기온이 계절 평균보다 38 메이저놀이터
지난 4월 말, 브라질의 한 인디 게임 개발사가 만든 게임 라투즈(RATUZ)가 국내 유명 게임 스트리머들의 입소문을 타고 반짝 인지도를 올렸던 일이 있습니 메이저놀이터 다
지난 25일 오후 과천 메이저놀이터 중앙선거관리위원회의 선거종합상황실 현황판에 후보자 등록현황 등이 표시돼 있다
근래 몇 년간 CPU 시장에 메이저놀이터 서는 불꽃 튀는 치열한 경쟁이 이루어졌습니다
사과를 발효해 만든 사과 사이다 식초(Apple Cider Vinegar 애플 사이다 비네거)는 정말 체 메이저놀이터 중감량에 효과가 있을까
한동훈 국민의힘 비상대책위원장이 지난 5일 서울 동작구 이수역에서 나경원 후보 메이저놀이터 지원유세를 하고 있다
거주 중인 구축 빌라 벽에 적힌 거지 동네 낙서 메이저놀이터 를 본 30대 가장이 씁쓸함을 토로했다
현대자동차는 인증 중고차와 연계한 보상판매(트레이드-인) 혜택을 이달 현대차 제네시스 9개 차종으로 확대하고 현금 할인액도 늘렸다고 9일 밝 메이저놀이터 혔다
제22대 국회의 메이저놀이터 원 선거 당일인 10일에는 낮 최고 21도로 평년 이맘때 날씨가 예상된다
1인 개발사 썬더폭스 스튜디오가 개발중인 인디 게임 문베이스 람다는 1비트 메이저놀이터 디더링 그래픽을 활용한 서바이벌 호러 게임입니다
메이저놀이터 상습적으로 음주 운전을 한 40대가 항소심에서도 실형을 선고받았다
국민의힘이 또다시 메이저놀이터 MBC를 검찰에 고발했습니다
부산항 신항 서컨테이너부두 2-5단계 동원글로벌터미널부산(DGT, 부산항 신항 7부두)은 마치 스마트 물류센터와 같은 메이저놀이터 모습을 자랑한다
메이저놀이터 마이트 앤 매직은 넓은 오픈 필드와 다양한 퀘스트로 RPG를 이야기할 때 빼놓을 수 없는 작품이다
한동훈 국민의힘 비상대책위원장이 지난 5일 서울 동작구 이수역에서 나경원 후보 메이저놀이터 지원유세를 하고 있다
거주 중인 구축 빌라 벽에 적힌 거지 동네 낙서 메이저놀이터 를 본 30대 가장이 씁쓸함을 토로했다
SPC그룹의 파리바게뜨 제빵 기사 민주노총 탈퇴 강요 의혹을 수사 중인 검찰이 메이저놀이터 허영인 회장을 서울구치소에서 불러 조사하고 있다
국민의힘이 또다시 MBC를 검 메이저놀이터 찰에 고발했습니다
국민 메신저로 불리는 카카오톡 이용자 수가 메이저놀이터 감소세를 이어가고 있다
정부가 전면 재개발이 어려운 노후 저층 주거지의 재개발 속도를 앞당기기 위해 뉴:빌리지 사업에도 메이저놀이터 패스트트랙 제도를 도입키로 했다
부산 KCC의 슈퍼팀 위용이 봄 농구 들어 메이저놀이터 비로소 완성됐다
기아 미국판매법인 마케팅담당(상무) 러셀 와거 메이저놀이터 가 더 기아 K4를 2024 뉴욕오토쇼에서 소개하고 있다
메이저놀이터 지난 몇년간 여름철 폭염으로 수만명이 목숨을 잃은 유럽에서 올해도 이상고온 조짐이 보이고 있다
LG이노텍이 성능을 대폭 강화한 고성능 라이다(LiDAR 메이저놀이터 )를 앞세워 자동차 첨단운전지원시스템(ADAS) 센싱 시장 공략에 박차를 가한다
가란 메이저놀이터 도는 신안 압해도에 딸린, 섬 속의 섬이다
올해를 끝으로 난 더 이상 안 올 거라고, 메이저놀이터 다음 타자가 정해지면 꼭 말씀드릴 테니 부디 한국에서 자주 뵙자는 말을 빠짐없이 전했다
르세라핌, 원펀맨 등 여러 메이저놀이터 독특한 콜라보를 선보였던 오버워치가 이번엔 카우보이 비밥과 만났다
정부가 먹거리 물가 부담 완화를 위해 추진 중인 농산물 납품단가 지원 사업 메이저놀이터 이 서울시 16개 시장으로 확대된다
박광온 더불어민주당 메이저놀이터 원내대표가 14일 국회에서 열린 의원총회에서 발언을 하고 있다
박광온 더불어민주당 메이저놀이터 원내대표가 14일 국회에서 열린 의원총회에서 발언을 하고 있다
메이저놀이터 슈퍼스타 크리스티아누 호날두가 상대와 신경전 중 팔꿈치 가격으로 퇴장을 당했다
붉은사막이 직접 구동되는 것을 본 시 메이저놀이터 간은 약 30분이었다
SPC그룹의 파리바게뜨 제빵 기사 민주노총 탈퇴 강요 의혹을 수사 중인 검찰이 메이저놀이터 허영인 회장을 서울구치소에서 불러 조사하고 있다
좋은 기술이나 아이디어를 가지고 있으나, 기업 운 메이저놀이터 영 경험이 부족하고 마케팅 능력이 없어 제대로 꿈을 펴지 못하는 스타트업∙중소기업이 적지 않다
최대 4 메이저놀이터 억원의 시세차익이 예상되는 경기 하남시 감일지구의 아파트 무순위 청약에 57만7000여명의 청약자가 몰렸다
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핵앤슬래시 언디셈버에서 오는 28일 신규 시즌 업 메이저놀이터 데이트를 진행한다
더불어 메이저놀이터 민주당이 27일 중앙선거관리위원회에 제출한 총선 10대 정책공약에 비동의 강간죄 도입이 포함된 데 대해 실무적 착오라고 해명했다
근래 메이저놀이터 몇 년간 CPU 시장에서는 불꽃 튀는 치열한 경쟁이 이루어졌습니다
러시아를 방문 중인 김정은 북한 국무위원장이 지난 13일 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령과 회담을 했다고 조선중앙 메이저놀이터 TV가 14일 보도했다
⑦ 경기 분당갑지난 26일 경기 분당 야탑역 일대에 안철수 국민의힘 후보와 메이저놀이터 이광재 더불어민주당 후보 현수막이 걸려 있다
퇴근길에 눈에 띄는 색의 잠바를 걸쳐 입고 메이저놀이터 큰소리로 외치는 소리를 종종 듣는다
퇴근길에 눈에 띄는 색의 잠바를 걸쳐 입고 메이저놀이터 큰소리로 외치는 소리를 종종 듣는다
2024총선미디어감시단의 포털 총선보도 모니터 보고서 마 메이저놀이터 지막회를 발간합니다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령과의 메이저놀이터 정상회담을 마친 뒤 극동 하바롭스크주로 이동 중인 것으로 전해졌다
좋은 기술이나 아이디어를 가지고 있으나, 기업 운 메이저놀이터 영 경험이 부족하고 마케팅 능력이 없어 제대로 꿈을 펴지 못하는 스타트업∙중소기업이 적지 않다
진달래 메이저놀이터 의 연분홍 은은한 색채가 산새의 지저귐과 어울리는 4월 초순에 임실 오봉산에 올랐다
오랜만에 안아봤는데 너무 귀엽고 메이저놀이터 , 더 잘해줬으면 좋겠습니다
지난 5일 고척 키움전에서 조기강판 당한 류현진이 아쉬운 표정으로 더그아 메이저놀이터 웃에 들어가고 있다
봄바람을 타고 나는 도깨비불 불씨는 최대 2㎞까지 날아가는 메이저놀이터 등 산불 확산 속도를 26배까지 빠르게 하는 것으로 나타났다
독일의 인디 개발사 이온 랜드(Ion Lands)는 지난 2021년 출시한 클라우드펑크(Clou 메이저놀이터 dpunk)의 후속작, 니발리스(Nivalis)를 올해 중으로 출시할 계획입니다
기재부 제공서울 마포구 상암동 일대에 들어서는 대관람차가 완공 일정 메이저놀이터 을 1년 앞당겨 내후년 첫 삽을 뜬다
2024총선미디어감시단은 포털의 총선보도 모니터 보고서를 매주 메이저놀이터 화요일 발간합니다
중앙선거관리위원회가 메이저놀이터 또 논란에 휩싸였다
선거운동 첫날 정권심판 당위성 강조천하람 이주영 개혁신당 공동총괄선대위원장(맨 왼쪽 왼쪽에서 세 번째)이 2 메이저놀이터 8일 경기 남양주에서 선거 유세를 하고 있다
정부가 먹거리 물가 부담 완화를 위해 추진 중인 농산물 납품단가 지원 사업 메이저놀이터 이 서울시 16개 시장으로 확대된다
하나은행이 금융감독원의 홍콩H지수 주가연계증권(ELS) 분쟁조정기준안을 수용하고 자율배상에 나서기로 27일 이사회에서 메이저놀이터 결의했다
서울을 떠올릴 수 메이저놀이터 있는 디자인으로 단장한 쓰레기통이 도심 곳곳에 설치된다
한동훈 국민의힘 비상대책위원장이 지난 5일 서울 동작구 이수역에서 나경원 후보 메이저놀이터 지원유세를 하고 있다
프로야구 삼성 라이온즈의 내야수 류지혁(30)이 LG 트윈스와 경기 중 부상으 메이저놀이터 로 경기 도중 병원으로 이송됐다
가란 메이저놀이터 도는 신안 압해도에 딸린, 섬 속의 섬이다
지구에서 가장 추운 남극의 기온이 계절 평균보다 38 메이저놀이터
미국여자프로골프(LPGA) 메이저놀이터 투어에서 4개 대회 연속 우승은 4명만 달성한 대기록이다
핵앤슬래시 언디셈버에서 오는 28일 신규 시즌 업 메이저놀이터 데이트를 진행한다
기재부 제공서울 마포구 상암동 일대에 들어서는 대관람차가 완공 일정 메이저놀이터 을 1년 앞당겨 내후년 첫 삽을 뜬다
김정은 북한 국무위원장과 블라디미르 푸틴 메이저놀이터 러시아 대통령의 정상회담을 계기로 양국이 농업 건설 부문에서 공동 프로젝트를 진행하기로 했다
부산 KCC의 슈퍼팀 위용이 봄 농구 들어 메이저놀이터 비로소 완성됐다
제주 용항포는 종달리와 하도리 사이에 있는 메이저놀이터 포구다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 15일 러시아 하바롭스크주 콤소몰스크나아무레시에 있는 유리 가가린 전투기 생산 공장을 방 메이저놀이터 문했다
마이트 앤 매직은 넓은 오픈 필드와 다양한 퀘스트로 RPG를 이야 메이저놀이터 기할 때 빼놓을 수 없는 작품이다
근래 몇 년간 CPU 시장에 메이저놀이터 서는 불꽃 튀는 치열한 경쟁이 이루어졌습니다
2024총선미디어감시단의 포털 총선보도 모니터 보고서 마 메이저놀이터 지막회를 발간합니다
골프가 일반에 대중화하면서 골프를 즐기는 젊은 층이 늘고 메이저놀이터 있다
카멘 더 퍼스트는 명예를 메이저놀이터 강조한 이벤트였다
러시아를 방문 중인 김정은 북한 국무위원장이 지난 13일 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령과 회담을 했다고 조선중앙 메이저놀이터 TV가 14일 보도했다
70대 증여가 전체의 3분의 1 이상증여받는 30대 늘 메이저놀이터 어 공제 영향서울 송파구 롯데타워 서울 스카이 전망대에서 내려다본 서울 시내
메이저놀이터 봄철은 황사 미세먼지와 더불어 꽃가루까지 날아다니면서 호흡기가 약한 사람들에게는 괴로운 계절이다
김준우 녹색정의당 상임선대위원장이 26일 국회에서 경향신문과 인터뷰를 하고 있다 메이저놀이터
슈퍼스타 메이저놀이터 크리스티아누 호날두가 상대와 신경전 중 팔꿈치 가격으로 퇴장을 당했다
월요일인 8일 전국 대부분 지역 기온이 20도 이상 오르면서 초여름과 메이저놀이터 같은 날씨를 보이겠다
시크릿랩 PlushCell 메모리폼 암레스트 커버 색상은 블랙, 실버, 핑크를 취급하 메이저놀이터 고 있어 사용자가 구비하고 있는 제품과의 조화를 고려하여 구매할 수 있다
거주 중인 구축 빌라 벽에 적힌 거지 동네 낙서 메이저놀이터 를 본 30대 가장이 씁쓸함을 토로했다
7일 서울 서초구 빗썸 고객센터에 비 메이저놀이터 트코인 가격이 표시되고 있다
메이저놀이터 봄철은 황사 미세먼지와 더불어 꽃가루까지 날아다니면서 호흡기가 약한 사람들에게는 괴로운 계절이다
플레이어스 챔피언십의 사나이 김시우(29 CJ)는 이번 시즌 초반 미국프 메이저놀이터 로골프(PGA) 투어에서 이렇다 할 성적을 내지 못했다
LG이노텍이 성능을 대폭 강화한 고성능 라이다(LiDAR 메이저놀이터 )를 앞세워 자동차 첨단운전지원시스템(ADAS) 센싱 시장 공략에 박차를 가한다
부산 KCC의 슈퍼팀 위용이 봄 농구 들어 메이저놀이터 비로소 완성됐다
지난 27일 인천 서구의 한 메이저놀이터 과자 보관창고에서 불이 나 연기가 치솟고 있다
정부가 메이저놀이터 전면 재개발이 어려운 노후 저층 주거지의 재개발 속도를 앞당기기 위해 뉴:빌리지 사업에도 패스트트랙 제도를 도입키로 했다
진달래 메이저놀이터 의 연분홍 은은한 색채가 산새의 지저귐과 어울리는 4월 초순에 임실 오봉산에 올랐다
정부가 경량 인공지능(AI)과 PIM(프로세싱 인 메모리) 반도체 등 개 메이저놀이터 발과 이를 활용한 AI 서비스 확산에 나선다
르세라핌, 원펀맨 등 여러 메이저놀이터 독특한 콜라보를 선보였던 오버워치가 이번엔 카우보이 비밥과 만났다
한빛소프트는 금일(16일), 오는 2월 22일 출시 예정인 자체 개발 모바일 MMORPG 그라나도 에스파다 M의 게임 소개 영 메이저놀이터 상을 공개했다
하나은행이 금융감독원의 홍콩H지수 주가연계증권(ELS) 분쟁조정기준안을 수용하고 자율배상에 나서기로 27일 이사회에서 메이저놀이터 결의했다
이번 팍스에서 반드시 해보고 싶었던 게임이 있습니다 메이저놀이터
지구에서 가장 추운 남극의 기온이 계절 평균보다 38 메이저놀이터
한국시간 9일 새벽 개기일식이 멕시코 미국 캐나다 동부를 메이저놀이터 가로질러 발생해 미국 전역에서 화제가 됐다
인디계에 한 메이저놀이터 획을 그었던 컵헤드가 5년만에 DLC로 다시 돌아왔습니다
메이저놀이터 봄철은 황사 미세먼지와 더불어 꽃가루까지 날아다니면서 호흡기가 약한 사람들에게는 괴로운 계절이다
조규홍 보건복지부 장관이 8일 오전 정부세종청사에서 열린 의사 집단행동 중앙재난안전대책본부 회의를 주재하고 있 메이저놀이터 다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령과의 메이저놀이터 정상회담을 마친 뒤 극동 하바롭스크주로 이동 중인 것으로 전해졌다
하나은행이 금융감독원의 홍콩H지수 주가연계증권(ELS) 분쟁조정기준안을 수용하고 자율배상에 나서기로 27일 이사회에서 메이저놀이터 결의했다
중앙선거관리위원회가 메이저놀이터 또 논란에 휩싸였다
인요한 국민의미래 선거대책위원장이 9일 여의도 당사에서 대국민 메이저놀이터 본투표 참여호소 회견을 하고 있다
메이저놀이터 봄철은 황사 미세먼지와 더불어 꽃가루까지 날아다니면서 호흡기가 약한 사람들에게는 괴로운 계절이다
샤오메이친(蕭美琴) 대만 부총통 당선인이 지난달 체코를 방문했을 때 중국 외교관이 그를 미행하다 현지 경찰에 적발돼 추방될 것으 메이저놀이터 로 보인다
기재부 제공서울 마포구 상암동 일대에 들어서는 대관람차가 완공 일정 메이저놀이터 을 1년 앞당겨 내후년 첫 삽을 뜬다
LG전자 사내벤처 엑스업의 이용수 대표가 지난 20일 마곡 LG사이언스파크에서 열린 스튜디오341 데모데이에서 골프장 코스관리 솔루션을 소개하고 있다 메이저놀이터
그는 현자가 아닐지도, 어쩌면 우자 메이저놀이터 이거나 광인일지도 모른다
1인 개발사 썬더폭스 스튜디오가 개발중인 인디 게임 문베이스 람다는 1비트 메이저놀이터 디더링 그래픽을 활용한 서바이벌 호러 게임입니다
메이저놀이터 봄철은 황사 미세먼지와 더불어 꽃가루까지 날아다니면서 호흡기가 약한 사람들에게는 괴로운 계절이다
최대 4 메이저놀이터 억원의 시세차익이 예상되는 경기 하남시 감일지구의 아파트 무순위 청약에 57만7000여명의 청약자가 몰렸다
부산항 신항 서컨테이너부두 2-5단계 동원글로벌터미널부산(DGT, 부산항 신항 7부두)은 마치 스마트 물류센터와 같은 메이저놀이터 모습을 자랑한다
20세 전후로 보이 메이저놀이터 는 청년들이 밤에 장거리 택시를 이용한 후 거액의 요금을 내지 않고 도망가는 일이 발생했다
지난 5일 고척 키움전에서 조기강판 당한 류현진이 아쉬운 표정으로 더그아 메이저놀이터 웃에 들어가고 있다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 15일 러시아 하바롭스크주 콤소몰스크나아무레시에 있는 유리 가가린 전투기 생산 공장을 방 메이저놀이터 문했다
한국 시간으로 금일(1일) 오전, 코나미는 스테이트 오브 플레이를 통해 자 메이저놀이터 사의 호러 게임 프랜차이즈 사일런트 힐 신작의 정보를 공개했습니다
그는 현자가 아닐지도, 어쩌면 우자 메이저놀이터 이거나 광인일지도 모른다
미국여자프로골프(LPGA) 메이저놀이터 투어에서 4개 대회 연속 우승은 4명만 달성한 대기록이다
한동훈 국민의힘 비상대책위원장이 지난 5일 서울 동작구 이수역에서 나경원 후보 메이저놀이터 지원유세를 하고 있다
인요한 국민의미래 선거대책위원장이 9일 여의도 당사에서 대국민 메이저놀이터 본투표 참여호소 회견을 하고 있다
카멘 더 퍼스트는 명 메이저놀이터 예를 강조한 이벤트였다
국민의힘이 또다시 메이저놀이터 MBC를 검찰에 고발했습니다
20세 전후로 보이 메이저놀이터 는 청년들이 밤에 장거리 택시를 이용한 후 거액의 요금을 내지 않고 도망가는 일이 발생했다
최대 4억원의 시세차익이 예상되는 경기 하남시 감일지구의 아파트 무순위 청약에 57만7000여명의 청약자가 몰 메이저놀이터 렸다
메이저놀이터 지난 몇년간 여름철 폭염으로 수만명이 목숨을 잃은 유럽에서 올해도 이상고온 조짐이 보이고 있다
하이브IM의 신작, 별이되어라2: 베다의 기사들(이하 별되2) 메이저놀이터 의 파이널 트레일러가 공개됐다
경기 화 메이저놀이터 성을 지역 후보로 나선 이준석 개혁신당 대표가 시민들과 인사를 나누고 있다
지난 5일 고척 키움전에서 조기강판 당한 류현진이 아쉬운 표정으로 더그아 메이저놀이터 웃에 들어가고 있다
최대 4 메이저놀이터 억원의 시세차익이 예상되는 경기 하남시 감일지구의 아파트 무순위 청약에 57만7000여명의 청약자가 몰렸다
정부가 전면 재개발이 어려운 노후 저층 주거지의 재개발 속도를 앞당기기 위해 뉴:빌리지 사업에도 메이저놀이터 패스트트랙 제도를 도입키로 했다
메이저놀이터 상습적으로 음주 운전을 한 40대가 항소심에서도 실형을 선고받았다
올해를 끝으로 난 더 이상 안 올 거라고, 메이저놀이터 다음 타자가 정해지면 꼭 말씀드릴 테니 부디 한국에서 자주 뵙자는 말을 빠짐없이 전했다
국민 메신저로 불리는 카카오톡 이용자 수가 감소세를 이어가 메이저놀이터 고 있다
메이저놀이터 15일로 단식 16일차인 이재명 더불어민주당 대표가 국회 당대표실로 지팡이를 짚고 들어가고 있다
레드랩게임즈가 개발하고 카카오게임즈가 함께 서비스하는 롬: 메이저놀이터 리멤버 오브 마제스티(이하 롬)이 2월 27일 정식 출시된다
국민 메신저로 불리는 카카오톡 이용자 수가 메이저놀이터 감소세를 이어가고 있다
붉은사막이 직접 구동되는 것을 본 시 메이저놀이터 간은 약 30분이었다
기재부 제공서울 마포구 상암동 일대에 들어서는 대관람차가 완공 일정 메이저놀이터 을 1년 앞당겨 내후년 첫 삽을 뜬다
국내 연구진이 암세포만 골라 유전자를 편집하는 유 메이저놀이터 전자 가위 크리스퍼 기술을 개발했다
인디계에 한 메이저놀이터 획을 그었던 컵헤드가 5년만에 DLC로 다시 돌아왔습니다
미국 방문을 앞두고 있는 기시다 후미오 메이저놀이터 (岸田文雄) 일본 총리가 김정은 북한 국무위원장과의 정상회담을 위해 고위급 접근을 하고 있다고 밝혔다
LG이노텍이 성능을 대폭 강화한 고성능 라이다(LiDAR 메이저놀이터 )를 앞세워 자동차 첨단운전지원시스템(ADAS) 센싱 시장 공략에 박차를 가한다
정부가 먹거리 물가 부담 완화를 위해 추진 중인 농산물 납품단가 지원 사업 메이저놀이터 이 서울시 16개 시장으로 확대된다
좋은 도시란 젊은이가 거리를 메이저놀이터 걸으며 자신의 미래에 대한 영감을 얻을 수 있는 곳이다
월요일인 8일 전국 대부분 지역 기온이 20도 이상 오르면서 초여름과 메이저놀이터 같은 날씨를 보이겠다
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령과의 정상회담 메이저놀이터 을 마친 뒤 극동 하바롭스크주로 이동 중인 것으로 전해졌다
상습적으로 음주 운전을 한 40대가 항소심에서도 실 메이저놀이터 형을 선고받았다
정부가 경량 인공지능(AI)과 PIM(프로세싱 인 메모리) 반도체 등 개 메이저놀이터 발과 이를 활용한 AI 서비스 확산에 나선다
메이저놀이터 코그(KOG)의 신작 슈터 리턴 얼라이브의 시네마틱 영상이 27일 공개되었다
이번 팍스에서 반드시 해보고 싶었던 게임이 있습니다 메이저놀이터
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현 시점의 비트코인 가격이 2021년 시세를 크게 웃돌고 있는 점을 안전놀이터 고려하면 매우 이례적이다
A씨는 20년간 모아온 전 재산을 안전놀이터 잃었다
좋은 꿈을 꾸면 복권에 안전놀이터 당첨되는 식이다
한편 김 의원이 보유한 가상자산 가치는 비트 안전놀이터 코인 현물 상장지수펀드 기대감에 따라 지난해 하반기부터 시작된 상승장을 거치면서 7억원 넘게 불어났다
앞서 김 의원은 지난해 5월 말 기준으로 실시한 국민권익의원회의 국회의원 가상자산 전수 조사에서 8억4000만원 상당의 가상자산을 보유한 것으로 조사됐다．김 의원은 지난해 가상화폐 안전놀이터 논란으로 민주당을 탈당해 무소속으로 의정활동을 해오다가 올해 4·10 총선을 앞두고 민주당 비례위성정당인 더불어민주연합에 입당했다
김 의원은 29일 SBS라디오 ‘김태현의 정치쇼’에서 민주연합에 합류한 배경에 대해 “조국혁신당의 지지율이 굉장히 높게 치솟았다 보니 안전놀이터 민주당 당원들에게 소구력이 있고 상징성이 있는 제가 더불어민주연합에 함께 합류해서 도움을 줘야 되는 것 아니냐라는 그런 필요성이 이야기되다 보니까 함께하게 됐다”고 설명했다
특히 올해 1∼4월 접수된 안전놀이터 피해 사례 중에는 리딩방의 비중이 26
증거금은 최소 20만달러이 안전놀이터 며 수익률은 25%를 예상한다고 했다
디지털 커머스 도시는 클레이튼 공식 디지털 지갑인 카이카스의 개발, 안전놀이터 운영권도 넘겨 받아 카이아 생태계의 지갑 사업 부문을 한층 강화한다
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The main language in Japan is Japanese, but in major tourist cities you can find some places where people speak English.
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