Supreme Court rejects another Georgia election lawsuit
ATLANTA — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal in a lawsuit that sought to stop the January runoff election that flipped control of the U.S. Senate to the Democrats.
The lawsuit, filed in December by attorney L. Lin Wood, said Georgia's processes for handling absentee ballots for the runoff violated state law. Wood also objected to the state's process for verifying signatures on absentee ballots and to processing those ballots before Election Day and the use of drop boxes for voters to return their ballots. He said those policies led to widespread voting fraud in the November general election.
In December a federal judge rejected Wood's request for a temporary restraining order halting the election. The judge said Wood lacked standing to file the lawsuit and his claims of potential voter fraud were "too speculative."
Wood appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and later to the Supreme Court. On Monday the high court rejected Wood's appeal without comment.
It's the second time in recent weeks the Supreme Court has rejected a Georgia election lawsuit. In February the court rejected Wood's appeal of a lawsuit that sought to overturn the November presidential election.
The lawsuits were part of an extraordinary burst of litigation over the November presidential election and the January runoff that saw Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock elected to the U.S. Senate.
— The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Can a pill help fight COVID-19? Early study results suggest it’s possible
A potential new treatment for COVID-19 still undergoing study cleared non-hospitalized coronavirus patients who had symptoms of infection faster than in patients who received a placebo, according to preliminary results newly released.
And it’s a pill.
If ongoing clinical trials continue to show similar positive results, it could be the first oral antiviral against COVID-19 to join a relatively small toolbox of treatments, potentially saving infected people from progressing to severe disease.
The only other treatment that has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is remdesivir, a drug that’s delivered through the veins and limited to hospitalized COVID-19 patients ages 12 and up.
Results from the Phase2a study were presented at the 2021 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections on Saturday.
“The secondary objective findings in this study, of a quicker decrease in infectious virus among individuals with early COVID-19 treated with (the pill), are promising and if supported by additional studies, could have important public health implications, particularly as the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to spread and evolve globally,” Dr. William Fischer, lead investigator of the study and an associate professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, said in a statement.
The pill, called molnupiravir, was randomly assigned in various doses among 182 participants across several medical centers who showed coronavirus symptoms within a week of testing positive and were not hospitalized.
By day five, no one who took the pill still tested positive for coronavirus, while 24% of those who got a placebo drug did, according to the study. Participants who took larger doses of the drug “also had lower levels of infectious virus than the placebo group after three days,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
The pill works by blocking the coronavirus’s ability to replicate. It was developed by Miami-based company Ridgeback Biotherapeutics and Merck, a multinational pharmaceutical company with its U.S. headquarters in New Jersey.
The researchers said there were no “safety signals” of concern. Four “serious adverse events” were reported, but none was caused by the pill.
The researchers said the Phase 2 studies are ongoing.
— McClatchy Washington Bureau
9-year-old boy killed after someone shot at his family's vehicle in St. Louis
ST. LOUIS — A 9-year-old boy became the seventh child to die by homicide this year in St. Louis after someone opened fire on his family's vehicle Sunday night.
Police identified the boy as Caion Greene. He was shot just before 10 p.m. in the 900 block of LaSalle Park Court, in a neighborhood south of downtown. He died at a hospital.
Caion lived in the 4500 block of Coyle Court in south St. Louis County.
Police said Caion was hit in the torso. He was taken to the hospital by relatives and police were called once they arrived.
Three others in the car with Caion were not hurt, police said. They were a man, 31, a woman, 34, and a 7-month-old boy.
Police said two men are suspected in the shooting but released no details on them or said if the shots came from another vehicle.
The shooting was in the LaSalle Park neighborhood south of downtown and bordering Soulard. A St. Louis Housing Authority complex, the LaSalle Park Apartments, is the address of the shooting.
The city has recorded 32 homicides for the year through Sunday. Seven of the victims, including Caion, were under the age of 17. Four were girls and three were boys.
— St. Louis Post-Dispatch
‘Naked Cowboy’ arrested in Daytona Beach during Bike Week
A street performer in New York City’s Times Square known as the "Naked Cowboy" was arrested Saturday in Volusia County for aggressive panhandling while attending Daytona Beach’s annual Bike Week.
Robert Burck, who wears only white briefs, boots and a cowboy hat during appearances, is also charged with resisting an officer without violence, according to court records.
This is Burck’s 21st appearance at the popular motorcycle event, his official Facebook page said.
A video of the arrest posted on YouTube shows Burck, 50, with his signature guitar that is strategically placed to give the illusion of nudity.
A small crowd gathered is seen booing and one person yelled, “Free the cowboy!” as a handcuffed Burck stands near a Daytona Beach police squad car with two officers.
Court records did not list attorney information for Burck. Jail records show he was released Sunday.
— Orlando Sentinel
