Texas abortion ban to last at least until December hearing
Most abortions in Texas will be banned until at least early December, after a federal appeals court in New Orleans said Thursday it will keep a trial judge’s ruling blocking the law on ice until the issue is taken up in a related challenge.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals scheduled oral arguments in the week of Dec. 6 in a challenge to the law brought by clinics and reproductive rights advocates.
In a split decision, the appeals panel denied a U.S. request to halt Texas’ law during the court challenge for the same reasons other judges on the court denied the clinics’ request.
Texas bans abortions after about the sixth week of pregnancy, before most women realize they’re pregnant.
Judges appointed by former Presidents Donald Trump and George W. Bush sided with Texas in the latest ruling while a Bill Clinton appointee dissented.
—Bloomberg News
Gunman to plead guilty in Stoneman Douglas mass shooting and jail assault case
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz will plead guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder, sources confirmed late Thursday.
He is also pleading guilty in the jailhouse assault case scheduled to start next week, the South Florida Sun Sentinel has learned.
WSVN-TV broke the news of the mass shooting pleas late Thursday afternoon, citing unnamed sources. The Broward Public Defender’s Office, which represents the confessed gunman, has not verified or disputed the report, which sources have confirmed to the Sun Sentinel. Lawyers in the case are scheduled to appear at a status hearing Friday morning in front of Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer.
Sources say Cruz will not be there Friday and the guilty pleas will be entered at a later date.
Prosecutors at the Broward State Attorney’s Office referred questions to the defense lawyers. “No plea agreement has been reached with our office,” said spokeswoman Paula McMahon.
Cruz has offered to plead guilty before, but only in exchange for a life sentence. Prosecutors are pushing for the death penalty,saying Cruz’s fate should be decided by a jury of his peers, not lawyers.
Guilt has never been in serious question, though defense lawyers have kept their trial strategy secret. There had been no official indication of plans to pursue an insanity defense, and the only other way to remove the death penalty as a possibility would be for the defense to somehow persuade jurors to convict Cruz of a lesser charge, such as second-degree murder.
—South Florida Sun Sentinel
Cher wants her Sonny and Cher royalties, and she's suing Bono's widow to get them
LOS ANGELES — Call it a Cher fight.
Cher is suing Sonny Bono's widow over royalties to songs the pop icon made famous with her ex-husband as the musical duo Sonny and Cher.
Cher filed a $1 million federal lawsuit Wednesday against former Rep. Mary Bono, a trustee of the Bono Collection Trust and other individuals, accusing them of breach of contract.
The 75-year-old entertainer claimed that Bono's fourth wife has tried to terminate provisions that entitle Cher to 50% ownership of the duo's musical composition royalties, record royalties and other assets from their marriage.
Some of the hits cited in the filing include "I Got You Babe," "The Beat Goes On," "Baby Don't Go," "Little Man" and "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)."
"The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour" stars began performing together in 1964, married in 1967 and divorced in 1975. Cher went onto become a solo superstar, making with new hits with "If I Could Turn Back Time" and "Believe" and winning an Oscar for her role in "Moonstruck."
Sonny Bono, who died in a Lake Tahoe skiing accident in 1998, pursued a career in California politics as a Republican Congressman in Palm Springs. Mary Bono later won his House seat and has appeared alongside Cher at various events over the years.
Cher alleged that she and Sonny agreed to equal division of their community property when they settled their divorce in 1978.
—Los Angeles Times
At least 46 killed after fire engulfs Taiwan high-rise
TAIPEI, Taiwan — At least 46 people were killed and dozens more were injured on Thursday after a fire that ripped through a multipurpose building in southern Taiwan.
The blaze broke out early Thursday at a 13-story, 40-year-old building in Kaohsiung City.
In a statement, the city's fire department confirmed the deaths of 46 people found in the building and that another 41 were injured.
The building's upper floors contained about 120 households while the lower ones were unoccupied.
The fire department said the blaze was put out after more than four hours, with about 145 firefighters and 72 fire trucks dispatched to the scene.
Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen has instructed the authorities to help relocate the affected families and to comprehensively investigate the cause of the fire.
Premier Su Tseng-chang said on Facebook that he had visited some of those injured in Kaohsiung hospitals and expressed his condolences to the victims' family members.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai bowed and apologized to the victims, the affected families and the public as a whole for the deadly accident at a news conference late on Thursday.
—dpa
