Shootings in New York, Washington; CDC urges vaccinations; jurors must restart deliberations in Cosby trial | Top headlines for June 20Police: 1 dead, 8 wounded in shooting at gathering in Harlem
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City police say an early-morning shooting at a gathering in Harlem left a man dead and eight other people wounded. Police, citing preliminary information, say officers responded about 12:40 a.m. Monday to reports of a shooting on a footpath along the FDR Drive and found five people shot. Police say four others arrived at hospitals for treatment. Police say a 21-year-old man was pronounced dead at a hospital. Police didn’t immediately have details about the gathering or what may have led to the shooting. Information about possible suspects wasn’t immediately released, but Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell says: “The emboldened individuals responsible for this are exactly who our officers are battling every day to make our city safe."
Teen killed, officer, 2 adults shot at unpermitted DC event
WASHINGTON (AP) — Police in Washington, D.C., say a 15-year-old boy was shot to death and three adults, including a police officer, were wounded after a musical event lacking a permit erupted into chaos. The shooting took place Sunday night near 14th and U Streets NW, about 2 miles north of the White House. Metropolitan Police Chief Robert J. Contee III says the wounded police officer and the other adults were recovering at hospitals. Contee says officials will be speaking to event organizers and considering what legal action can be taken because the event lacked a permit.
US opens COVID vaccine to little kids; shots begin this week
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials have opened COVID-19 vaccines for infants, toddlers and preschoolers — the last group without the shots. The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the decision Saturday, hours after an advisory panel voted unanimously that coronavirus vaccines should made available to children as young as 6 months. The Biden administration has been gearing up for the start of the shots early this week. Millions of doses have been ordered for distribution to doctors, hospitals and community health clinics around the country.
'It's just hell there': Russia still pounds eastern Ukraine
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s military machine is persevering in its ferocious effort to grind down Ukraine’s defenses. In Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, which in recent weeks has become the focal point of Moscow’s attempt to impose its will on its neighbor, battles reportedly raged for the control of multiple villages Monday. The war’s consequences for food and fuel supplies are increasingly weighing on minds around the globe after warnings that the fighting could go on for years. Financial help for children displaced by the war was due to come from an unlikely quarter later Monday, when a prominent Russian journalist was to auction off his Nobel Peace Prize medal in New York.
Bill Cosby civil trial jury must start deliberations over
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — After two days of deliberations, jurors in a civil trial deciding on sexual abuse allegations against Bill Cosby will have to start from scratch on Monday. By the end of Friday, jurors had decided on nearly all questions put before them, including whether Cosby had sexually assaulted plaintiff Judy Huth at the Playboy Mansion in 1975 when she was 16. Los Angeles County Judge Craig Karlan, who had promised one juror she could depart after Friday, wanted to accept the partial verdict, but courthouse closure rules left him no choice but to close down. Jurors will begin again with an alternate.
Sunday's sports highlights
The US Open goes to a first-time Major champion, the Yankees finally lose, the Guardians knock off the Dodgers, the Red Sox get past the Cardinals and the Braves avoid their first three-game skid of the season.
Yellen: Recession not inevitable, gas tax holiday weighed
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says she expects the U.S. economy to slow in the months ahead, but that a recession is not inevitable. She's offering a dose of optimism even as economists grow increasingly worried about a recession fueled by skyrocketing inflation and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Yellen tells ABC's “This Week” that overall consumer spending in the United States remains strong, while also noting that spending patterns are changing, given the impact of rising food and energy prices. She's also expressing an openness to a federal gas tax holiday to help give motorists some relief at the pump. And she says it'll take “skill and luck” to bring down inflation while maintaining low unemployment.
Outside Yellowstone, flooded towns struggle to recover
FROMBERG, Mont. (AP) — With Yellowstone National Park pushing to re-open to tourists more quickly than anticipated after record floods pounded southern Montana, some of those hardest hit in the disaster live far from the famous park’s limelight and are leaning heavily on one another to pull their lives out of the mud. In the farming town of Fromberg, the Clarks Fork River flooded almost 100 homes and badly damaged a major irrigation ditch that serves many of the farms. The town’s mayor says about a third of the flooded homes can’t be repaired. Resident Lindi O'Brien says if the town is going to recover, its 400 people will have to do much of the work themselves.
Reports: Paul Haggis detained in Italy in sex assault case
ROME (AP) — Italian news reports are quoting prosecutors in southern Italy as saying film director Paul Haggis has been detained for investigation of the alleged sexual assault of a woman. Haggis has been in Italy for a film festival in Ostuni. The tourist town is in the southeastern region of Puglia. News agency LaPresse and other Italian media carried a statement from prosecutors in nearby Brindisi that they are investigating allegations a “young foreign woman” was forced to have “non-consensual” sexual relations over two days. The authorities were quoted as saying that Haggis dropped the woman off early Sunday at Brindisi airport where authorities helped her. Haggis’s attorney didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
NYC making push to get fired workers vaccinated, rehired
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City is making a push to give city workers who were fired earlier this year for not getting to the COVID-19 vaccine a chance to get their old jobs back if they get vaccinated. In February, the city fired more than 1,400 workers who failed to comply with the vaccine mandate put in place by former Mayor Bill de Blasio. Unvaccinated non-Department of Education workers are receiving a letter with details, and DOE employees are expected to receive a letter later in the summer. A city spokesperson says 97% of workers are vaccinated and that the goal has always been “vaccination rather than termination."
Deputy: 2 officers had chance to shoot Uvalde school gunman
UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Two Uvalde city police officers told a sheriff's deputy that they passed up a fleeting chance to shoot the gunman for fear of hitting children outside an elementary school where the gunman killed 21 people. The gunman went on to enter Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on May 24 and open fire, killing 19 children and two teachers. Chief Deputy Ricardo Rios of nearby Zavala County told The New York Times of speaking to two unidentified officers, one of whom was armed with an AR-15-style rifle, who said they had seen the gunman firing from outside the school. When Rios asked why the officers didn't shoot, they said children were playing in the background in the line of fire.
Iowa Supreme Court: Abortion not fundamental right in state
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court has made it easier for lawmakers to limit or outlaw abortion in the state, reversing a decision by the court just four years ago that guaranteed the right to abortion under the Iowa Constitution. The court concluded Friday that a 2018 decision was wrong and should be overturned. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by abortion providers who challenged a 2020 law that required a 24-hour waiting period before a woman can get an abortion. A judge struck down the law in June 2021, citing the 2018 Iowa Supreme Court decision that declared abortion a fundamental right under the state constitution. The court reversed that decision and sent the case back to district court.
Court rejects Trump-era EPA finding that weed killer safe
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has rejected a Trump administration finding that the active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup does not pose a serious health risk and is “not likely” to cause cancer in humans. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Friday ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to reexamine its 2020 finding that glyphosate did not pose a health risk for people. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, the most widely used herbicide in the world. Its original producer, Monsanto, was bought in 2018 by pharmaceutical giant Bayer, which now faces thousands of claims from people who say Roundup exposure caused their cancer.
7 arrested in House office building linked to Colbert show
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Capitol Police say officers arrested seven unauthorized people in a congressional office building Thursday night and charged them with unlawful entry. The people identified themselves as being affiliated with CBS’ “Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The incident Thursday night followed the third public hearing by the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. The USCP statement says the case remains “an active criminal investigation, and may result in additional criminal charges.”
Russian TV shows videos of 2 US vets captured in Ukraine
Russian state television has shown video of two U.S. military veterans who went missing last week while fighting in Ukraine. The videos confirm that the men were taken captive and raise fears about their fate. Alex Drueke and Andy Huynh, both from Alabama, are believed to be the first Americans captured by Russian forces since the war began on Feb. 24. Drueke is shown on camera telling his mother he is alive. Russian RT, which broadcasts in English, says the Americans are being held by Russian-backed separatist forces in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
Drag story hour hosts, under attack, dig in their heels
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Rhetoric against LGBTQ people is now targeting drag storytimes with interruptions and other protests around the country during Pride Month. At one recent event outside San Francisco, members of the extremist Proud Boys walked in and began hurling insults at a drag queen as she read to children and their parents. Organizers of the reading programs say that they have faced pushback from the beginning but that the recent vitriol is new. They say opponents who claim they want to protect children are actually just scaring and endangering them. And they say they plan to enhance security but won’t stop their reading programs.
