Corpus Christi

Firefighter who died in blaze was on elite Hotshot crew

A California firefighter killed while battling a blaze in the mountains east of Los Angeles was identified Tuesday as a member of an elite Hotshot crew dedicated to fighting wildfires. Charles Morton, 39, a San Diego native, was a 14-year veteran of the U.S. Forest Service and a squad boss for the Big Bear Interagency Hotshots in San Bernardino National Forest, officials said. Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen said Morton was a well-respected leader who was always there for his squad and his crew at the toughest times.

University of California system improperly admitted dozens of students, audit finds

The California system admissions process "has not treated applicants fairly or consistently," auditor Elaine Howle wrote in a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom and the state legislature. The network of colleges enrolls more than 280,000 students across 10 campuses. The University of California, Berkeley has historically been considered the system's most prestigious, and ranks among the best public universities in the United States.

He couldn’t get a drink on Duval Street. Then he waved a gun, Key West police said

Two men visiting Key West found out what happens when you wave a gun out of a car window on Duval Street, according to police.

California firefighters make stand to save famed observatory, homes

Crews fought on Tuesday to defend homes and the famed Mount Wilson Observatory from California's biggest and most dangerous wildfire, standing their ground at a major highway between the flames and populated areas. The Bobcat Fire, which broke out Sept. 6 in the Angeles National Forest north of Los Angeles, has already blackened an area larger than the city of Atlanta and its rapid spread prompted worried law enforcement officials to call for new evacuations on Monday evening. Once home to the largest operational telescope in the world, the Mount Wilson Observatory, which sits on a peak of the San Gabriel mountains near vital communications towers, said in an update that almost all the forest around it had burned.

Iowa town shuts down after black man's body found burned in ditch

'My daughter will not let me outside in the dark by myself because she's afraid of losing another parent,' the wife of the victim said.

Vanessa Bryant sues LA sheriff's office over Kobe Bryant helicopter crash photos

The lawsuit accused deputies of being the "biggest threat to the sanctity of the victims" by sharing photos of the remains of Kobe and Gianna Bryant.

Ginsburg movies 'RBG' and 'On the Basis of Sex' re-released to support women's rights

Two films about late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg are being re-released in U.S. movie theaters with proceeds going to support women's rights groups, producers said on Tuesday. Documentary "RBG," which cemented Ginsburg's unlikely status as a pop culture hero, and biographical movie "On the Basis of Sex," both from 2018, will be back in movie theaters on Friday and available on demand, Focus Features and Magnolia Pictures said. The film companies said they would donate their net proceeds from the re-release to the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation is support of their Women's Rights Project, which was co-founded by Ginsburg in 1972.

Lufthansa plans rapid COVID-19 testing starting October -executive

The move comes as airlines and airports globally have urged countries to accept a passenger's negative COVID-19 test as an alternative to travel restrictions and quarantines that have battered demand for travel. While the aviation industry has largely backed the use of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests which take several hours to process in a lab, airline trade group IATA on Tuesday touted antigen tests that can be processed on site and typically give results within about 15 minutes. "You know that companies like Abbott or Roche are bringing these tests to the market and we are definitely looking into this," said Bjoern Becker, senior director, product management, ground & digital services for the Lufthansa Group.

Dark web drugs raid leads to 179 arrests

About 500kg of cocaine, heroin and other drugs have been seized as well as guns.

Nike smashes revenue, profit estimates on China demand, online boom

The Nike brand's digital sales surged 82% in the first quarter ended Aug. 31, with at least double-digit rises recorded in all regions. Overall, sales in China, where the economy opened from lockdowns much earlier than in other parts of the world, rose 6%. "Nike is recovering faster based on accelerating brand momentum and digital growth," Chief Financial Officer Matt Friend said in a statement.

Nike: Fiscal 1Q Earnings Snapshot

Access a Zacks stock report on NKE at https://www.zacks.com/ap/NKE

North Carolina extends deadline for mailed ballots as election court fights continue

Courts in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania - all states expected to be critical to the November contest between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden - have ordered officials this month to accept late-arriving ballots, in each case over Republican objections. Republican legislative leaders in Pennsylvania said in a court filing on Tuesday they plan to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule the state Supreme Court's decision.

KB Home: Fiscal 3Q Earnings Snapshot

Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $895.6 million.

Woman who allegedly sent ricin to White House charged

Pascale Ferrier has been charged with making threats against the president of the United States, and will make her first appearance in federal court in Buffalo on Tuesday afternoon.

Close call with storm renews debate over Houston barrier

Houston, a Gulf Coast city that barely rises above sea level, has long worried about a worst-case weather scenario — a direct hit from a powerful storm that sends a wall of water barreling into the region's petrochemical facilities, possibly triggering an environmental disaster. When it was spared a blow from Hurricane Laura last month, the city breathed a sigh of relief. Now the close call has renewed a debate about whether the Houston area should build a massive and expensive barrier to protect against storm surge.

Colleges reopenings in-person likely added 3,000 U.S. COVID-19 cases per day: study

The findings call into question the practicality of face-to-face classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, and are important as colleges and universities plan their spring 2020 semesters, said researchers from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Indiana University, the University of Washington and Davidson College. To track COVID-19 cases and study their association with students attending classes at college campuses, the team used location data from a database of cellphone users who agreed to share information. The researchers noted significant increases in counties where colleges had reopened for face-to-face instruction, especially in and around campuses with students who came from areas with higher incidences of COVID-19.

U.S. FDA to tighten coronavirus vaccine authorization standards ahead of election - paper

According to the report, the FDA is expected to ask vaccine manufacturers seeking an emergency authorization to follow trial participants for a median of at least two months after they receive a second vaccine shot. Few vaccine developers were expected to have definitive trial results before the presidential election.

Vanessa Bryant sues L.A. sheriff's office over Kobe Bryant helicopter crash photos

The lawsuit accused deputies of being the "biggest threat to the sanctity of the victims" by sharing photos of the remains of Kobe and Gianna Bryant.

Mexico's drug war leaves 39,000 unidentified bodies in its morgues

Investigation by Quinto Elemento Labs finds alarming number of people buried in common gravesMexico’s militarised crackdown on organised crime has left nearly 39,000 unidentified bodies in the country’s morgues, which are often unable to handle the volume of corpses brought in for autopsies.A new investigation by the investigative NGO Quinto Elemento Labs found that an alarming number of people were simply buried in common graves without proper postmortems. Some were left in funeral homes and more than 2,500 bodies were given to medical schools.“It’s possible that [medical] students are learning with bodies of persons being searched for by their families,” said an article accompanying the report, published on Tuesday. “The forensic crisis has transformed the Mexican state into a burying machine: 27,271 unidentified bodies went from the morgue to common graves – 70% of the total.”Mexico’s militarised war on drugs has claimed nearly 300,000 lives over the past 14 years. Another 73,000 persons have gone missing – with their families often left to search for their loved ones unassisted by the authorities.Calderón sends in the armyMexico’s “war on drugs” began in late 2006 when the president at the time, Felipe Calderón, ordered thousands of troops onto the streets in response to an explosion of horrific violence in his native state of Michoacán.Calderón hoped to smash the drug cartels with his heavily militarized onslaught but the approach was counter-productive and exacted a catastrophic human toll. As Mexico’s military went on the offensive, the body count sky-rocketed to new heights and tens of thousands were forced from their homes, disappeared or killed.Kingpin strategySimultaneously Calderón also began pursuing the so-called “kingpin strategy” by which authorities sought to decapitate the cartels by targeting their leaders.That policy resulted in some high-profile scalps – notably Arturo Beltrán Leyva who was gunned down by Mexican marines in 2009 – but also did little to bring peace. In fact, many believe such tactics served only to pulverize the world of organized crime, creating even more violence as new, less predictable factions squabbled for their piece of the pie.Under Calderón’s successor, Enrique Peña Nieto, the government’s rhetoric on crime softened as Mexico sought to shed its reputation as the headquarters of some the world’s most murderous mafia groups.But Calderón’s policies largely survived, with authorities targeting prominent cartel leaders such as Sinaloa’s Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.When “El Chapo” was arrested in early 2016, Mexico’s president bragged: “Mission accomplished”. But the violence went on. By the time Peña Nieto left office in 2018, Mexico had suffered another record year of murders, with nearly 36,000 people slain."Hugs not bullets"The leftwing populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador took power in December, promising a dramatic change in tactics. López Obrador, or Amlo as most call him, vowed to attack the social roots of crime, offering vocational training to more than 2.3 million disadvantaged young people at risk of being ensnared by the cartels. “It will be virtually impossible to achieve peace without justice and [social] welfare,” Amlo said, promising to slash the murder rate from an average of 89 killings per day with his “hugs not bullets” doctrine.Amlo also pledged to chair daily 6am security meetings and create a 60,000 strong "National Guard". But those measures have yet to pay off, with the new security force used mostly to hunt Central American migrants.Mexico now suffers an average of about 96 murders per day, with nearly 29,000 people killed since Amlo took office.The investigation found that the number of unidentified corpses in Mexican morgues was 178 in 2006 – the year president Felipe Calderón first deployed the country’s armed forces against drug cartels.That figure soared by 1,032% over the next 13 years to 38,891 , as the murder rate mushroomed.Mexican morgues have routinely run out of space to store unidentified bodies, prompting some local authorities to seek makeshift solutions such as storing bodies in refrigerated trailers. In 2018, a scandal erupted in Guadalajara when the stench of decomposition led to the discovery of a trailer containing 273 corpses which had been parked in a suburban neighbourhood.Stories have also surfaced of workers and neighbours protesting against horrible stenches coming from overcrowded morgues in cities such as Tijuana on the US border and Chilpancingo in the heroin-producing heartland of Guerrero state.The number of unidentified bodies in Mexican morgues has continued to accelerate, even as the current government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised to take action. An additional 4,905 were brought to Mexican morgues in 2019, according to the report.

Muckraker’s fight to unseal FBI files on Jeffrey Epstein kept alive by judge

A federal judge on Tuesday kept alive a citizen muckraker’s quest to pry loose for the public’s benefit tens of thousands of FBI documents about disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, including his time as a government informant.

Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Biden leading Trump in Michigan, tied in North Carolina

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden led President Donald Trump by 5 percentage points among likely voters in Michigan, while the two were even in North Carolina, according to Reuters/Ipsos opinion polls released on Tuesday. Reuters/Ipsos is polling likely voters in six states - Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Florida and Arizona - that will play critical roles in deciding whether Trump wins a second term in office or if Biden ousts him in the November election.

Here's what life is like in the prison where Lori Loughlin will serve her 2-month sentence in the college-admissions scandal

Lori Loughlin, who with her husband paid $500,000 to guarantee their daughters' admission to USC, will be held in a prison in Victorville, California.

Louisiana court keeps mask-free pastor out of his hearing for defying pandemic safeguards

Tony Spell, pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in Baton Rouge, was charged in late March with violating stay-at-home orders implemented by Governor John Bel Edwards. Public officials have not released any data about whether any congregants at Life Tabernacle have been infected with the virus.

McConnell says timing of Supreme Court vote depends on Senate panel

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday he will determine the timing of a Senate vote to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, after the Senate Judiciary Committee recommends a nominee for confirmation. McConnell told a news conference that the next step will be for Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham to handle in committee the nominee that President Donald Trump is expected to announce on Saturday.

Disney appeal to California: 'It's time' to let Disneyland reopen

Walt Disney Co urged California officials on Tuesday to let the company reopen the Disneyland theme park, which remains shuttered six months after closing down to help curb the spread of coronavirus. With approval from local authorities, Disney has reopened its parks in Shanghai, Paris and Florida with limited attendance, face mask requirements and other measures to prevent COVID-19 infections. Hong Kong Disneyland is set to reopen on Friday.

U.S. airlines to make urgent call for new bailout ahead of October 1 job cuts

Major U.S. airlines plan to make a last-ditch bid to persuade Congress to grant them a new $25 billion bailout to help avert thousands of employee furloughs set to begin Oct. 1, even as a separate $25 billion in government loans for the sector sits untapped. The chief executives of American Airlines, United Airlines and JetBlue Airways and major aviation unions were scheduled to hold a news conference on Capitol Hill on Tuesday afternoon calling for a six-month extension of a payroll support program that consisted primarily of grants in exchange for keeping workers on the payroll. On Monday, two key Republican senators introduced legislation that would authorize another $25.5 billion in payroll assistance for passenger airlines, but congressional aides said it was unlikely to win passage given aid requests from many other struggling industries.

Drug trafficker facing death penalty in Indonesia escapes through jail sewers

A Chinese drug dealer on death row in Indonesia made a desperate dash for freedom by tunneling through the prison sewage system, the police have revealed. In an escape bid resembling a movie plot, Cai Changpan, 37, who was convicted of methamphetamine smuggling, dug a hole from his cell in a jail in Tangerang, near the capital, Jakarta, and entered waste pipes that led to roads outside, Yusri Yunus, a police spokesperson told reporters. The runaway’s cell mate revealed that he had been plotting his escape for five to six months, digging the hole with tools taken from a construction project in the prison kitchen. He timed his flight according to the changing of the prison guards. Cai was sentenced to death in 2017 for trafficking almost 300 pounds of crystal meth, reported Indonesian news site detik.com. A police investigation found 154 pounds of meth concealed in chicken coop cleaner equipment. In 2017 he staged an earlier escape from a police detention centre by breaking through a bathroom wall. Cai is not alone. Several audacious jailbreaks have been recorded in Indonesia’s creaking prison system in recent years. In 2017, an American prisoner held for drug possession escaped from a Bali jail by scaling the wall with a fellow inmate. Conflicting reports at the time suggested the pair had either mounted the wall with a ladder from a construction site or cut a hole in the roof with a hacksaw. In the same year, more than 400 inmates escaped from the overcrowded Sialang Bungkuk facility on Sumatra island after breaking through the prison gate and overwhelming the guards. While in 2019, more than 100 inmates fled the Siak district jail on Sumatra after rioting and a fire broke out at the detention centre.

As U.S. surpasses 200,000 COVID-19 deaths, Wisconsin sounds alarm over surges in cases

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Tuesday declared a new public health emergency and extended a face mask mandate into November to fight a coronavirus flareup, as the number of people who have died across the United States since the pandemic began passed 200,000. In-person social gatherings have led to cases in Wisconsin skyrocketing among people aged 18 to 24, Evers said, as he pleaded with students who returned to colleges for the fall semester to stay out of bars and wear masks. A conservative group is contesting the order in court, arguing Evers violated state law by using emergency powers more than once.

Handmaid's Tale? U.S. Supreme Court candidate's religious community under scrutiny

In any case there has been renewed interest in the group since U.S. President Donald Trump put one of its purported members, Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the Seventh District Court of Appeals, on his short list of candidates for elevation to the Supreme Court. The group has declined to confirm or deny whether Barrett was a member since a New York Times article in 2017 said she was in the group, citing unnamed current and former members.

Trump and Biden set to clash on Supreme Court, five other topics in first debate

Trump and Biden will address each of those four topics on Sept. 29, as well as discuss the economy and their track records in six segments scheduled to last 15 minutes apiece, the Commission on Presidential Debates said in a statement. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death on Friday of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has rapidly become a major campaign focus, with the prospect of a 6-3 conservative majority galvanizing voters in both parties. Trump and Biden will have a limited audience in person due to the pandemic but are expected to draw millions of viewers to watch commercial-free on television.

A man jumped out of an ambulance in the Keys, deputies say. Then he was taken to jail

A 35-year-old Big Pine Key man was arrested Monday after police said he ran from deputies as he was being taken to the hospital in an ambulance.

200,000 dead: Federal response marked by chaotic messaging, unwarranted optimism

It's a grim milestone that President Donald Trump said America would never reach. "A lot of people think that goes away in April, with the heat," Trump said in February. When that didn't happen, Trump told Fox News this summer: "It's going to disappear, and I'll be right."

Two migrant victims of domestic abuse reveal their tragic stories in support of law reform

Two migrant victims of domestic abuse appeared in the Lords yesterday in support of attempts by two commissioners to secure greater legal protection for them. One who was abused by the father of her child claims she was told by police they could not help her because of her insecure immigration status in the UK, while another assaulted and sexually abused in an arranged marriage in the UK is still struggling to stay in the country. Claire Waxman, London’s victims’ commissioner, and Nicole Jacobs, the domestic abuse commissioner, are pressing for new laws that would ensure all domestic abuse victims would get equal access to support, welfare and legal help. They are also pushing for an amendment to the domestic abuse bill that would enable migrant victims to report their abuse to police, social services and health professionals in the knowledge they would be treated first and foremost as victims and without fear of immigration enforcement. Ms Waxman said: “The Domestic Abuse Bill is a landmark opportunity to provide better protection and support for domestic abuse victims. However, the Bill continues to overlook society’s most marginalised and isolated survivors of domestic abuse.” Ms Jacobs said: “It should never be the case that victims and survivors of domestic abuse are not able to access the support needed to escape a perpetrator simply because of their immigration status.” Gill told how she came from Brazil in 2016 only to suffer multiple forms of abuse in a relations after the father of her child went back on his word to renew his British passport and apply for a visa for their child. “One day during an argument he exerted physical violence towards me. I was very scared and decided to go to the police. The response from the police was that due to my insecure immigration status and the No Recourse to Public Funds policy they could not help me,” she said. ”They did not treat me as a victim first and foremost as they say they do. They convinced me that my best option was to go back to Brazil and referred me to the Home Office.” She applied for temporary leave to remain but this is due to expire next month “which means that after almost four years since I fled the abuse, I am still struggling to settle and to be safe.” T, who grew up outside the UK in a Hindu family, entered an arranged marriage aged 24 with a man who was rude and angry towards her on her wedding day. “It was obvious he did not want to marry me,” she said. She suffered regular abuse: “He would hurt me at least once a week: he often pulled my hair, pressed down on my neck nearly choking me, and slammed my head against a wall. He was rude and aggressive towards me every day. Sometimes he was sexually violent towards me.” When she confronted him over an affair that she knew he was having, she was forced to have sex with him and he threatened to kill her. “Shortly after I moved out, my husband told me that he had called the Home Office and told them that we were separated and so they wrote to me at marital address, saying that I might not be able to stay here if the marriage had broken down,” she said. “I later received a letter from the Home Office stating that as I had separated, they would cancel my visa which meant that I no longer had a right to stay in the UK. Because of this, I lost my job. I no longer have the right to work and I have No Recourse to Public Funds. I have always been worried that I will be deported because I am now an overstayer.” She has been fighting to stay in the UK since. “I am also afraid of being found by my husband who has been trying to find me for a few years now, and has made threats to kill me. I hope I can stay in the UK and live without fear any longer.”

Former Madison, Wisconsin, police chief tapped to help Jacob Blake investigation

Noble Wray will serve as an independent consultant for prosecutors weighing possible charges against the Kenosha officer who shot Blake.

Parents charged over teen house party that shut down in-person school

They're accused of violating the state's social host law.

Adidas and Pixar debut 'Toy Story' shoe collection

It's been 25 years since the film's release and there's a cool new collection launching to help everyone celebrate in style. Slated to release Oct. 1, Adidas and Pixar have joined forces to create a "Toy Story" Friendship collection featuring sneakers and apparel. It's a reminder that we all have friends to lean on, just like Andy had Woody, Buzz and the whole "Toy Story" gang.

White House urges Congress to pass separate aid bill for airlines

The Trump administration is urging U.S. lawmakers to pass separate bills to aid airlines and other sectors, given failure to reach agreement on a broader package of stimulus funding, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Tuesday. The U.S. Congress has been deadlocked over another round of economic stimulus aimed at blunting the effects of the coronavirus pandemic that has now killed over 200,000 people in the United States. U.S. airlines, facing a huge drop in demand due to virus-related lockdowns, on Tuesday mounted a last-ditch bid to persuade Congress to approve a new $25 billion bailout to help avert thousands of furloughs set to begin Oct. 1.

What we know about the alleged racist attack on a New York City jogger

A woman has been arrested on hate crime charges one month after she allegedly hurled a glass bottle -- and a racial slur -- at a jogger, New York City police said. Around noon on Aug. 17, 37-year-old Tiffany Johnson was jogging in Queens when a woman flung a glass bottle at her, the NYPD said. "She followed me up the block, was screaming 'get out of here, go back to Africa...N-word,'" Johnson told ABC New York station WABC.

Louisville under state of emergency as city braces for Breonna Taylor decision

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer signed an executive order Tuesday that would allow him to impose a curfew "due to the potential of civil unrest."

Louisville under state of emergency as city braces for Breonna Taylor decision

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer signed an executive order Tuesday that would allow him to impose a curfew "due to the potential of civil unrest."

Fast Take: U.S. housing boom good for some voters, leaves others in the cold

The National Association of Realtors report released on Tuesday shows that the housing market, revived by lower mortgage rates thanks in part to the Federal Reserve's easing of monetary policy, continues to serve as a bright spot, one that President Donald Trump can point to as proof the economy is healing after coronavirus-related lockdowns put millions out of work. The home ownership rate rose to 67.9% in the second quarter, up 3.8 percentage points from a year earlier and reaching its highest level in nearly 12 years, according to data released by the Commerce Department in July. Limited housing supply is a boom for homebuilders.

A Georgia woman robbed Florida senior citizens of $1 million, feds say — with a phone

The director and guiding voice behind a phone scam that stole $1 million from senior citizens in Broward, Palm Beach and other Florida counties has been charged in West Palm Beach federal court, prosecutors say.

‘It’s time to change! #killtrump': Deported Canadian arrested for sending ricin to Trump may have tweeted about attack days earlier

Social media accounts bearing same name share common themes and include recent post threatening president

House passes bill that would make natural hair discrimination illegal nationwide

It's been more than a year since California became the first state to pass a law banning natural hair discrimination. On Monday, the organization behind The CROWN Act (Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair), which ensures protection against race-based hair discrimination, said the U.S. House of Representatives passed a similar bill ending hair discrimination. The federal bill will now move on to the U.S. Senate.

Billionaire Bloomberg raises millions to help restore Florida felon voting rights

The fundraising tally comes just over a week after Bloomberg aides said the former New York City mayor, who made an unsuccessful 2020 bid for the Democratic nomination, would spend at least $100 million to help Democrat Joe Biden's campaign against President Donald Trump in Florida. "The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy and no American should be denied that right," Bloomberg said in an emailed statement, adding that he is working with a group that has been helping former felons' pay fines and access the ballot box.