HAMPTON, Tennessee – Two members of a university cycling team have been killed and seven others were injured in a car crash in northeastern Tennessee. Milligan University said 11 of its cyclists were out together on a morning training ride when they were struck by a driver in Hampton. Sophomores Haylan Engdahl and Brayden Rogers were killed in the crash. The county’s district attorney said a 69-year-old man from North Carolina had been arrested. As of Wednesday evening, four students were in critical condition, two others were stable but remained in the hospital, and one student had been discharged, the hospital’s trauma medical director said.
AUSTIN, Texas – A Texas court has slashed a $50 million judgment against Infowars founder Alex Jones to $1.5 million over falsely calling the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut, school shootings a hoax. The ruling does not affect a $1.25 billion judgment against Jones in Connecticut, but is a significant legal victory for him after being found liable for damages for claiming the mass shooting didn’t happen. Despite the multiple financial judgments against him in Connecticut and Texas, Jones has yet to make any payments to victims’ families. He is fighting the judgments through lengthy appeals in both states.
JUNEAU, Alaska – Two U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employees were among eight people killed when a small plane crashed in foggy weather near a remote military radar site on the southwestern coast of Alaska. The plane, chartered by the agency, crashed Thursday near the Cape Newenham Long Range Radar Site Airport. Two pilots and six passengers died. The radar was built in the 1950s as part of a network designed to provide early warning of a missile attack by the Soviet Union. National Transportation Safety Board investigators are traveling to the scene. The Federal Aviation Administration says the twin-engine Cessna 441 took off from Anchorage. U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Davis describes the loss as devastating.
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court’s chief justice is allowing the White House to continue construction on President Donald Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom project for now. Chief Justice John Roberts signed a temporary order on Friday letting work continue as the court considers an emergency appeal from Trump’s Republican administration. Lower courts had ordered a halt to the project, finding it must have congressional approval. The ruling was set to take effect on Friday. The case is the latest test of Trump’s unprecedented assertion of presidential power to come before the nation’s highest court.
NEW YORK – The former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch has been ruled mentally competent to stand trial for alleged sex trafficking after being hospitalized for months for dementia and Alzheimer’s symptoms. U.S. District Court Judge Nusrat Choudhury ruled Thursday that Michael Jeffries “clearly possesses a rational and factual understanding of the proceedings” and is a “reasonably intelligent person and skilled communicator.” The Long Island judge said she reviewed testimony and written reports from medical experts and listened to hours of phone calls Jeffries made while detained at a federal prison hospital in North Carolina. Jeffries’ lawyers didn’t immediately comment.
– The Associated Press