Biden renews call for gun-control laws after Indiana shooting
President Joe Biden renewed his call for added gun-control laws and ordered U.S. flags to fly at half-staff after a deadly shooting near the Indianapolis airport, the latest in series of massacres that have shaken the nation.
“Too many Americans are dying every single day from gun violence,” Biden said in a statement on Friday, noting that he earlier urged Congress to pass new gun laws. “It stains our character and pierces the very soul of our nation. We can, and must, do more to act and to save lives.”
A gunman opened fire late Thursday at a FedEx Corp. facility near Indianapolis International Airport, killing eight people before apparently taking his own life and leaving several others wounded.
The recent spate of shootings have thrust gun violence back into the national spotlight and created another domestic challenge for a president already confronting the coronavirus pandemic, a historic migrant influx and police shootings of Black Americans.
Biden signed several executive actions last week aimed at curbing gun violence and called on Congress to pass gun legislation, though he acknowledged the difficulty of enacting new laws with the House and Senate closely divided along party lines.
Nonetheless, the president has said action is needed and that the number of mass shootings has humiliated the U.S. in the eyes of the world.
Flags will be lowered at the White House, government buildings, military posts and embassies, according to Biden’s statement on Friday.
—Bloomberg News
Liberty University sues Jerry Falwell Jr., says he owes millions after sex scandal
Liberty University is suing its former president, Jerry Falwell Jr., claiming he smeared the school’s reputation with a sex scandal and hid that information while negotiating a plentiful new contract in 2019.
Falwell was president and chancellor of Liberty from 2007 until August 2020, when he resigned in disgrace.
Earlier that month, Falwell’s pool cleaner-turned-business partner Giancarlo Granda said beginning in 2012 he had sex several times with Falwell’s wife, Becki, while the evangelical university president watched. The Falwells have admitted the affair but denied the more sordid claims.
In the suit, Liberty said the scandal tarnished its reputation as an institution of higher learning, claiming Falwell threw numerous parties and was spotted at several clubs in Miami.
The lawsuit also includes the infamous photo of Falwell with his pants unzipped next to a woman who is not his wife, and a screenshot from a video of Falwell doing weight room pelvic thrusts with two young women standing on either end of the barbell.
The Lynchburg, Virginia, school said its former president’s actions were “in contrast to the high behavior standards that Falwell expected others at Liberty to follow.”
—New York Daily News
2 people arrested after transgender women murdered in Charlotte
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Two arrests have been made in Charlotte following the murder of two Black transgender women, law enforcement officials said Friday.
Dontarius Long, 21, and Joel Brewer, 33, were charged Friday, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officials said. Long and Brewer are both accused of murder and conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon, among other charges, police records show.
“Our streets are a lot safer,” said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings at a news conference announcing the arrests.
The police investigation into the shooting deaths of the two women is ongoing, officials said. Multiple police agencies were involved in the murder investigations, including the FBI and police in Union County and in South Carolina.
On Thursday, CMPD warned that someone might be targeting local trans women who engage in sex work. Officials said that there has “never been a more vulnerable time” for them.
Jaida Peterson, 29, was discovered in a hotel room at Quality Inn near the airport, on April 4, Easter Sunday. She had been shot, according to CMPD. Her funeral took place Tuesday in South Carolina and loved ones held a vigil last week for her in Charlotte.
Eleven days later, police were called to a hotel in University City. At the Sleep Inn, located on North Tryon Street, early Thursday morning, police officers found a 28-year-old transgender woman fatally shot.
Social media posts from friends and loved ones identify the second victim as Remy. CMPD officials say her last name is Fennell. She was 28.
—The Charlotte Observer
Ghislaine Maxwell to face 2 trials for alleged Jeffrey Epstein related crimes
Ghislaine Maxwell will face two separate trials on charges of grooming underage victims of Jeffrey Epstein and lying under oath, a judge ruled Friday.
Manhattan Federal Judge Alison Nathan wrote in a 34-page ruling that trying the cases together raised thorny legal issues.
Maxwell is charged with procuring and grooming three underage Epstein victims in the mid-1990s. She’s also accused of lying under oath about her sex life in two depositions in 2016. Having one jury consider both allegations would result in them being exposed to “a wider swath of information” than is necessary, Nathan wrote.
“It would introduce unrelated allegations of sexual abuse, which would potentially expose the jury to evidence that might otherwise not be admissible,” the jurist explained.
The judge’s decision did not address a new charge against Maxwell of trafficking a minor in the early 2000s, which was included in a superseding indictment issued by a grand jury last month.
Nathan also rejected a slew of legal challenges Maxwell, 59, brought against her indictment.
The British socialite has pleaded not guilty and is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. She’s currently scheduled to face trial in July, though she seeks a delay.
—New York Daily News
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