Defense seeks to exclude Confederate flag vanity plate at upcoming Ahmaud Arbery trial
ATLANTA — Less than two weeks until the start of one of the highest-profile murder trials in Georgia history, defense attorneys are trying to exclude what could become a crucial piece of evidence.
The lawyers, representing two men accused of chasing and fatally shooting Ahmaud Arbery early last year in a Glynn County neighborhood, are asking a judge to prohibit photos of a vanity license plate of the old Georgia state flag on the front of Travis McMichael’s pickup truck. Georgia’s prior flag, flown from 1956 through 2001, prominently featured the Confederate battle emblem.
McMichael, his father Greg, who also joined in the motion, and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, all of whom are white,will stand trial for murder and other charges in the February 2020 death of Arbery, who was Black. Jury selection begins Oct.18.
The defense’s motion to exclude the license plate, filed last week, calls the evidence “not relevant” and “prejudicial.”
In their response to the motion, prosecutors argued that McMichael purchased the truck several weeks before the shooting and attached the vanity plate “for all the world to see.”
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hundreds of giant sequoias may have burned to death in KNP Complex, Windy fires
LOS ANGELES — Hundreds of giant sequoias may have been killed after high-intensity flames from the KNP Complex fire tore through several groves of the massive trees in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.
Since igniting Sept. 9, the lightning-sparked blaze has encroached on 15 groves of the colossal trees, with two that appear to have been at least partially subjected to high-severity fire, said Christy Brigham, chief of resources management and science for the parks.
The extent of the damage to those groves — Redwood Mountain and Castle Creek — won’t be known until officials can survey the area, either from the air or the ground, she said.
An enormous pyrocumulus formed Monday near the Redwood Mountain Grove, indicating the likelihood of extreme fire behavior.
Nate Stephenson, an emeritus scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said the observations suggested severe fire effects in the grove. “But as always, we won’t know what really happened until the smoke clears,” he wrote in an email.
Park officials on Wednesday wrote on Facebook that they suspect some groves were hit by flames severe enough “to result in sequoia mortality, possibly for significant numbers of trees (hundreds).”
The post said personnel were prioritizing and treating threatened groves outside the current fire perimeter, as well as “mopping up trees that need it,” extinguishing residual fires and cooling them down.
Crews in recent days have focused on protecting the well-known General Grant Tree from potential harm; a photo published by the National Parks Service showed a rigged sprinkler system spraying the colossal tree with water.
—Los Angeles Times
Feds charge 18 ex-NBA players with $4 million fraud involving league’s health care plan
NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors slam-dunked 18 former NBA players, including Coney Island’s Sebastian Telfair, for collecting crooked payouts during an alleged four-year scam to bilk the league’s health care plan out of nearly $4 million.
The defendants “engaged in a widespread scheme to defraud the plan by submitting false and fraudulent claims” for nonexistent medical, wellness and dental services, according to a detailed 32-page Manhattan Federal Court filing Thursday. The phony billings totaled $3.9 million, with the defendants pocketing $2.5 million, prosecutors charged.
Prosecutors alleged the theft from the National Basketball Players’ Health and Welfare Benefit Plan was orchestrated by former NBA first-round draft pick Terrence Williams, who provided the others with fake invoices to support the phony claims.
In return, the players allegedly provided the now 34-year-old Williams with $230,000 in kickbacks between 2017 and 2020.
“The defendants’ playbook involved fraud and deception,” said Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss. “They will have to answer for their flagrant violations of the law.”
Court papers recounted a lucrative plot long on nerve but weak in execution. Letters purportedly detailing treatment from a California chiropractor’s office were rife with red flag-raising errors, the indictment alleged.
“Not on letterhead, contain unusual formatting, have grammatical errors,” the court documents said. “And one of the letters misspells a purported patient’s name.”
In another case, two claims filed about a month apart detailed different injuries than initially reported by the players.And claims related to a pair of Beverly Hills dentists involved players who were not even in California on the dates cited in paperwork, the indictment charged.
Williams took things a step further, collecting money from his co-defendants for facilitating their illicit profits.
—New York Daily News
Nobel literature prize awarded to Tanzania's Abdulrazak Gurnah
STOCKHOLM — The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded this year to Tanzanian author Abdulrazak Gurnah "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee," the Swedish Academy announced on Thursday.
Gurnah was born on the island of Zanzibar in 1948, but following the end of British rule in 1963 Gurnah faced persecution due to his Arab ethnicity, and was forced to flee, eventually arriving in Britain as a refugee in the late 1960s.
Living in Britain ever since, he taught at the University of Kent until his retirement.
"We are absolutely delighted that our former lecturer Abdulrazak Gurnah has been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature -truly inspirational!" the university tweeted.
Gurnah's work numbers 10 novels including "Paradise," which was shortlisted for both the Booker and the Whitbread Prize in1994. The refugee experience and the dislocation that accompanies it is a central theme to much of his work.
The academy cited his "dedication to truth and his aversion to simplification" saying his novels "recoil from stereotypical descriptions and open our gaze to a culturally diversified East Africa unfamiliar to many in other parts of the world."
The Nobel Prize for Literature is the world's most prestigious literary award and comes with 10 million Swedish kronor (about$1.1 million) prize money.
The academy's choices have in the past been criticized for being Eurocentric, lacking diversity and for having a political agenda.
Gurnah is only the sixth African Nobel literature laureate, joining the likes of Albert Camus, Wole Soyinka and J.M. Coetzee.
Last year, the American poet Louise Gluck was awarded the literature prize, one of just 16 women to receive it since 1901.
—dpa
