| Trump's Tulsa rally will be held indoors despite Oklahoma's record spike in COVID-19 cases Posted: 16 Jun 2020 09:36 AM PDT  The Trump campaign said Tuesday it would stick with its plan for a giant indoor rally in Tulsa — on the same day the Centers for Disease Control reported that Oklahoma showed a 7.7 percent increase in COVID-19 cases, the highest in the country.
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| People of color account for majority of coronavirus infections, new CDC study says Posted: 16 Jun 2020 02:48 PM PDT  African-Americans and Latinos are vastly overrepresented when it comes to coronavirus infections, according to an analysis released by the Centers for Disease Control on Monday morning.
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| US fighters have rushed to intercept 8 Russian bombers approaching Alaska in the past week Posted: 17 Jun 2020 09:37 AM PDT  Russian military aircraft have penetrated NORAD air defense identification zones eight times this year, the commander said.
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| Supreme Court decision 'catalyst' for change: LGBT activists Posted: 16 Jun 2020 01:06 PM PDT 
(New York resident Roger McKinsey): "It's about time, I mean, we are human beings, too, you know what I mean. Why shouldn't we get equal rights just as everyone else?" Supporters of LGBT rights hailed a landmark decision from the Supreme Court, calling it a catalyst for change, but long overdue. (New York resident Drew Ginsburg): "It's right. It should've happened a lot time ago" (New York/Trinidadian resident Wendy Dumas-John): "We've been fighting this fight for so long...it's like it's a brand new day, not only for lesbians and gays, but for trans people." A diverse crowd of New Yorkers wearing masks and waving the rainbow pride flag gathered on Monday at the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan, the bar where the gay rights movement started. The High Court ruled that a longstanding federal law barring workplace discrimination also protects gay and transgender employees. The 6-3 ruling represented the biggest moment for LGBT rights in the United States since the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015. And it comes during the month of June – Pride Month. (New York resident Drew Ginsburg):"It makes me feel proud. Especially with pride month being cancelled, I feel like pride month should turn into equality month." Two conservative justices joined the court's four liberals in the decision: Chief Justice John Roberts and Neil Gorsuch, a 2017 Trump appointee who wrote the ruling. (Donald Zarda's lawyer Gregory Antollino):"You know, I can win other cases, but I'll never top this." Attorney Gregory Antollino represented one of the plaintiffs - Donald Zarda – a case that Antollino has been working on for ten years. Zarda sued after being fired as a skydiving instructor in New York and claimed he lost his job after he told a customer he was gay and she complained. He died in a skydiving accident after filing the lawsuit in 2014. (Donald Zarda's lawyer Gregory Antollino):"I wish Don were here to celebrate with me…It'll be a catalyst toward changing history. You know, it's a new decision. It's going to take the states that don't protect LGBT rights time to adjust to." The ruling comes as the Trump administration continues to roll back LGBT rights including last week issuing a rule lifting anti-discrimination protections for transgender people in healthcare. The Supreme Court faces another test in its next term, which starts in October, in a case pitting LGBT rights against religious rights involving Philadelphia's decision to bar a Catholic organization from participating in the city's foster care program because the group will not place children with same-sex couples.
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| 23 Affordable Indoor Planters We Love Posted: 17 Jun 2020 11:27 AM PDT |
| Nine People Shot in Minneapolis as Post-Riot Unrest Continues Posted: 17 Jun 2020 04:35 PM PDT  Nine people were shot in Minneapolis on Tuesday evening amid a spate of violence following the death of George Floyd, the Star Tribune reported.Shootings have risen sharply in the city over three weeks of unrest after Floyd, an African American man, was killed by Minneapolis police officers. Since May 26, 66 people have been shot in the city, comprising 45 percent of all shooting victims in Minneapolis for this year.The Tuesday shootings follow an incident on Sunday in which seven people were shot during a bar fight. One of the victims of the bar shooting has since died. No arrests have been made in any of the recent shootings.It does not appear that the shootings are connected to protests over Floyd's death. Those protests turned violent in some instances, with rioters setting fire to Minneapolis's third police precinct building as well as numerous businesses.The Minneapolis City Council has estimated that damages to buildings from the riots amount to at least $55 million. However, the council warned that the damages could be much higher, and Mayor Jacob Frey has said damages could reach "hundreds of millions of dollars."Floyd's death has driven calls by Black Lives Matter activists to defund police departments. Representative Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), whose district encompasses Minneapolis, has supported calls to defund the Minneapolis police, calling the department "beyond repair." Mayor Frey has resisted the push to dismantle the city's police department, although the Minneapolis City Council has signed a pledge to dismantle the department.
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| Mexico president: Killing of federal judge will be punished Posted: 17 Jun 2020 07:34 AM PDT  Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Wednesday that those responsible for the murders of a federal judge and his wife in the western state of Colima will be punished, and a senior official said the judge was apparently killed because of his work. López Obrador said there will not be impunity for the killings of District Court Judge Uriel Villegas Ortiz and his wife, Verónica Barajas. Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez Cordero said that she knew Villegas personally and that his murder was particularly difficult for her.
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| Trump on coronavirus: 'If we stop testing right now, we'd have very few cases, if any.' Why he's dangerously wrong. Posted: 16 Jun 2020 06:06 AM PDT  Florida has certainly been finding more cases. On June 1, Florida's seven-day average stood at 726 cases per day. As of June 15, it had more than doubled to 1,775. However, Florida has been conducting roughly the same average number of COVID-19 tests every day for the last month.
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| NYPD walks back claims Shake Shack employees 'intentionally poisoned' police officers' milkshakes Posted: 16 Jun 2020 06:39 AM PDT  The New York Police Department has walked back claims tweeted on Monday by a labour union representing 20,000 NYC detectives that employees at a Shake Shack in Manhattan "intentionally poisoned" three police officers' milkshakes.An ongoing investigation has found "no criminality" on the part of any Shake Shack employee, according to an NYPD statement released a day after the Detectives' Endowment Association wrote on Twitter: "Tonight, three of our fellow officers were intentionally poisoned by one or more workers at the Shake Shack at 200 Broadway in Manhattan."
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| Taiwan jets 'drive away' intruding Chinese fighter plane, third intrusion in days Posted: 16 Jun 2020 01:23 AM PDT  Taiwan air force jets "drove away" a Chinese fighter plane that briefly entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone on Tuesday, the defence ministry said, reporting the third intrusion in a week. The single J-10 fighter was given radio warnings to leave before the Taiwanese air force jets ushered the intruder out of the airspace southwest of the island, the ministry said. On Tuesday last week, the ministry said several Su-30 fighters, some of China's most advanced jets, crossed into the same airspace and were also warned to leave.
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| 'Inaccurate and harmful': Texas Senators Cruz, Cornyn dismiss notions of systemic racism in police and society Posted: 16 Jun 2020 07:22 PM PDT  Speaking during a Senate Judiciary hearing about police violence, both the Senators dismissed the idea of systemic racism.
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| Assad's British wife and 38 others hit by US sanctions as Trump tries to squeeze regime Posted: 17 Jun 2020 09:12 AM PDT  Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's British wife and dozens of members of his inner circle were on Wednesday hit with US sanctions, as the Trump administration heaped pressure on the beleaguered regime. Asma al-Assad, who was born and grew up in the UK, was designated for the first time by the US government, which described her as "one of Syria's most notorious war profiteers." The sanctions came into force on Wednesday under the Caesar Act - legislation which has been years in the making and named after a Syrian defector who documented horrific human rights abuses carried out by the regime. The first batch of designations target 39 people or entities with ties to the government, including Assad's sister Bushra, brother and military commander Maher, as well as other members of the extended family, senior military leaders and business executives. Many of them were already subject to US sanctions, but the new penalties also target non-Syrians who do business with them in an attempt to discourage foreign investment in the country. Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State, said the designations represent "the beginning of what will be a sustained campaign of economic and political pressure to deny the Assad regime revenue and support it uses to wage war and commit mass atrocities against the Syrian people."
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| Family of Dreasjon Reed, Black Man Killed by Indianapolis Police Officer, File Lawsuit Against City's Police Department Posted: 16 Jun 2020 02:45 PM PDT  The lawsuit says that the Indianapolis police department did not correctly train officers on how to engage with civilians
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| Federal judge, wife killed in cartel-plagued Mexican state Posted: 16 Jun 2020 01:12 PM PDT |
| British Airways is reportedly selling lounge artwork for cash, and some pieces are valued at more than a $1 million Posted: 16 Jun 2020 09:53 AM PDT  British Airways once flew the Concorde, but is now resorting to selling its valuable artwork as a new form of cash flow during the pandemic.
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| Fists, stones and clubs: China and India's brutal high altitude, low-tech battle Posted: 17 Jun 2020 07:35 AM PDT  India and China's militaries have some of the world's most sophisticated modern weaponry, but their deadliest scrap in over 50 years was fought using fists, rocks wrapped in barbed wire and clubs studded with nails. Colonel Babu was seriously injured.
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| Sorry, China: U.S. Aircraft Carriers Are Far From Obsolete Posted: 16 Jun 2020 04:00 AM PDT  The U.S. Navy is now operating three aircraft carriers in the Pacific in what appears to be a strong show of force following Chinese movements and comments regarding Taiwan and the South China Sea.
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| Oklahoma coronavirus rate surges as Trump rally nears Posted: 16 Jun 2020 02:11 PM PDT  * State confirmed 591 new cases on Monday, a 7.7% increase * Vice-president will attend Saturday's election rally in TulsaShortly after the Trump campaign again insisted its first campaign rally since March would go ahead in Tulsa this weekend, it was reported that Oklahoma confirmed 591 new coronavirus cases on Monday, a 7.7% increase and the highest in the US.The news, reported by Yahoo and citing an internal document from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), came after Mike Pence, who will attend the rally, falsely claimed that "in a very real sense" Oklahoma had "flattened the curve" of new Covid-19 infections."Today their hospital capacity is abundant," said the vice-president, who leads the White House coronavirus taskforce, at a cabinet meeting on Monday. "The number of cases in Oklahoma has declined precipitously and we feel very confident going forward with the rally this coming weekend."That is not true. Nor was it true when Pence said it.On Saturday, Oklahoma reported its then highest daily total of new cases, 225, since the pandemic began. On Sunday, Tulsa county reported its largest single-day increase since early March. On Monday, state statistics showed the seven-day rolling average for new cases in Tulsa was 65, up on a previous peak of 26 in early April.Before news of the CDC figures on Tuesday, researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland recorded 8,417 total cases in Oklahoma and 359 deaths.According to Johns Hopkins, the US has recorded more than 2.1m cases of Covid-19, and more than 116,000 deaths.One closely watched national model now predicts more than 200,000 deaths by October.Ali Mokdad, a creator of the model at the University of Washington, said: "Increased mobility and premature relaxation of social distancing led to more infections, and we see it in Florida, Arizona and other states."This means more projected deaths."The Republican party has abruptly moved the main events of its August national convention from North Carolina to Florida, because of the prospect of fewer coronavirus-related restrictions there.But Florida has seen four days in the last six of record levels of new Covid-19 infections.Meanwhile Oklahoma is among states which have reopened since late May. The Trump rally in Tulsa will be a showpiece event as the administration seeks to reopen an economy battered by the outbreak.Speaking to Fox News on Tuesday, Pence said: "We've had such an overwhelming response that we're also looking at another venue, we're also looking at outside activities. And I know the campaign team will keep the public informed as that goes forward."The Trump campaign clarified that Pence did not mean the rally might be switched from the indoor BOK Center in an attempt to mitigate possible coronavirus spread, but was instead indicating extra venues to meet demand.Attendees must sign a waiver, clearing the campaign of responsibility should they contract coronavirus.Tulsa's chief public health officer and the Tulsa World newspaper have urged Trump to cancel the rally.The event has already been moved back a day to avoid a clash with Juneteenth, the day when African Americans celebrate the end of slavery, during nationwide protests over police brutality and racism.On Monday Bruce Dart, Tulsa's chief public health officer, told the World: "I want people to be safe, and it hurts my heart to think that there's a potential that we're going to have something here where people become exposed to an illness. We've seen how devastating it's been across the board in this country, and I don't want it to happen to anybody here."Trump, meanwhile, claimed "Almost One Million people request tickets". The BOK Center venue holds 19,000. A convention center nearby will extend capacity to around 62,000. Brad Parscale, campaign manager, perhaps indicated the true purpose of the promotional effort when he heralded the "biggest data haul and rally signup of all time by 10x".On Monday, as reports circulated of donors in New Jersey being stringently tested before being ushered into Trump's presence, Parscale said of the rally: "Before entering each guest will get: Temperature check, Hand sanitizer, Mask."But use of the masks and attempt to socially distance will reportedly be optional.Public health experts including Dr Anthony Fauci say the US may avoid a second wave of the virus if people take precautions including wearing masks and maintaining social distancing rules. Trump has refused to wear a mask in public.Oklahoma's Republican governor, Kevin Stitt, backs the president's visit and attributes rising cases in his state to increased testing."It is in the United States. It is in Oklahoma," Stitt said on Monday. "And we can't let [coronavirus] dictate our lives. We have to go about our lives, but we are going to do it with every precaution possible."And at the White House, Trump said: "If we stop testing right now we'd have very few cases, if any."
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| Police officer laughs after breaking black man’s ankle with flying tackle Posted: 17 Jun 2020 07:51 AM PDT  Atlanta's police department (APD) faces fresh criticism after body-camera footage emerged from an arrest last April in which officers broke a black man's ankle and laughed whilst he was forced to walk on it.The new case comes days after APD chief Ericka Shields resigned following the police shooting of another black man, Rayshard Brooks, amid nationwide protests against racism and police violence.
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| Should we be worried about the Beijing coronavirus outbreak? Posted: 17 Jun 2020 02:05 AM PDT  China's latest cluster outbreak in Beijing, at 137 cases over the last six days, is the worst resurgence of the coronavirus since early February. It came as a bit of a surprise, ending a nearly two-month streak of zero cases in the country's capital. Authorities have taken no chances, immediately moving to institute partial lockdowns by quarantining housing compounds with infections, halting outbound transport links, and closing schools – again. Public transport within the city is enforcing social distancing measures, cutting capacity by as much as half to allow passengers more space. In Beijing, life is being disrupted only about a week after containment measures were finally relaxed and residents were just beginning to get excited about spending summer with greater mobility. Dining al fresco and riding a bike seemed novel concepts after months of being shuttered indoors.
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| FAA explains why it's taking so long to fix the grounded Boeing 737 jetliner Posted: 17 Jun 2020 01:26 PM PDT  It's been over a year since the jet that figured in two crashes was last flown. On Wednesday, FAA chief Stephen Dickson gave the Senate an update.
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| Pablo Escobar's crime partner freed in US, goes to Berlin Posted: 16 Jun 2020 12:04 PM PDT  Pablo Escobar's crime partner and one of Colombia's pioneering "cocaine cowboys" has been released after a long prison sentence in the U.S. and been deported to Germany, his lawyer said Tuesday. Carlos Lehder left on a flight for his new home in Berlin on Monday after being released from a U.S. prison in Florida, where he had been held as part of the government's witness protection program, attorney Oscar Arroyave told The Associated Press. Lehder, 70, was one of the leaders with Escobar of the Medellin cartel that dominated the global cocaine trade in the 1980s.
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| Kim Jong Un has quietly built a 7,000-man cyber army that gives North Korea an edge nuclear weapons don't Posted: 17 Jun 2020 06:05 AM PDT  North Korea's cyber army is trained to find secrets, disrupt critical infrastructure, and steal money to help the isolated country avoid sanctions.
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| India coronavirus toll sees record jump of 2,000 dead Posted: 17 Jun 2020 08:21 AM PDT  India's official coronavirus death toll leapt by more than 2,000 on Wednesday as the hard-hit country struggles to contain a ballooning health crisis that has overwhelmed hospitals. The news came as Germany urged its nationals in India to consider leaving for their own safety, while France warned its citizens in New Delhi to stay home unless going to an airport to return to Europe. Authorities said the sharp increase in fatalities to 11,903 was mainly due to Mumbai and Delhi updating their figures.
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| WHO sees "green shoots" of hope in pandemic Posted: 17 Jun 2020 11:40 AM PDT 
While cases have still been rapidly rising in many regions of the world, there were "green shoots of hope", the WHO's Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an online media briefing. Tedros also said that dexamethasone should only be used under close medical supervision, after initial results of a clinical trial had shown that the cheap, common steroid can help save critically ill patients. Trial results announced on Tuesday (June 16) by researchers in Britain showed dexamethasone, used since the 1960s to reduce inflammation in diseases such as arthritis, cut death rates by around a third among the most severely ill COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital.
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| By 2030, The World's Naval Power Will Have Shifted East Posted: 16 Jun 2020 11:00 PM PDT  China, India, Japan, and South KOrea
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| Pompeo meets China's top diplomat in Hawaii, State Department says Posted: 17 Jun 2020 05:54 AM PDT  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, in Hawaii on Wednesday, the State Department said, amid a deep deterioration of relations between strategic rivals that are the world's two top economies. The two have been at loggerheads over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic and China's move to impose new security legislation on Hong Kong. Tensions have risen also over China's neighbor North Korea.
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| Deceased in Lejeune Shooting-Stabbing Incident Was Marine Spouse, Officials Say Posted: 16 Jun 2020 09:14 AM PDT  A Marine official confirmed to Military.com that the two people involved were not married to each other.
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| EU says 'sovereign' UK has taken back control of its fishing waters Posted: 17 Jun 2020 09:59 AM PDT  The European Union has accepted that Britain will take back control of its waters after the end of the Brexit transition period, the president of the European Commission said on Wednesday. Ursula von der Leyen said that all Brussels wanted was a long-term agreement over fishing rights that gave guarantees to EU boats that had fished UK waters for years. The latest hint at an EU willingness to compromise over its demand for a status quo fishing deal "under existing conditions" still ruled out the annual negotiations over fishing opportunities demanded by the UK. "No one questions the UK sovereignty over its own waters," she told the European Parliament in Brussels, "but we asked for predictability and we asked for guarantees for fisherman and fisher women who have been sailing in those waters for decades". She said that Brussels was willing to be creative to find compromises in the trade negotiations after her meeting with Boris Johnson on Monday. Talks will intensify in July after months of deadlock. The former German defence minister was less conciliatory over the governance structure overseeing the free trade agreement, which the EU wants to also include fishing and foreign policy and security cooperation. A single dispute settlement system was vital for all aspects of the future agreement, she said in a signal the EU would not abandon that red line, despite the UK pushing for a different enforcement regime for each separate agreement. "Governance may sound like an issue for bureaucrats, it's not," she said, "It is central for businesses and our private citizens both in the UK, and the European Union. It is crucial to ensure that what has been agreed is actually done." Mrs von der Leyen told MEPs that the transition period would not be extended beyond the end of the year. Failure to reach a deal by then will mean both sides trading on less lucrative WTO terms. "We on our side have always been ready to grant extension, but it needs two to tango," she said. "This means that we are now halfway through these negotiations with five months left to go but we're definitely not halfway through the work to reach an agreement with little time ahead of us," she warned. "No one can say with certainty, where these negotiations will be at the end of the year. But I know for sure that we will have done everything to reach an agreement," she added. Mrs von der Leyen also insisted on the need for level playing field guarantees and a role for the European Court of Justice "where it matters", which the UK resists. . Mrs von der Leyen claimed that the EU's demand for level playing field guarantees for state aid, tax, labour rights and the environment were to ensure fair competition. The commitments, which are meant to prevent the UK undercutting EU standards, are rejected by Britain because they are more stringent than similar guarantees in EU trade deals with Japan and Canada. Brussels counters that the UK is closer to the EU market and is being offered a zero quota, zero tariff trade deal. "We're ready and willing to compete with British firms they're excellent and our firms are excellent too, but it cannot be a downward competition," she said. "It should be a shared interest for the European Union and the UK to never slide backwards and always advance together towards higher standards." Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator, accused the UK of attempting to "cherry-pick" the advantage of membership of the bloc without the obligations. "It's up to the UK to choose what it wants, or whether it wants an agreement," he said before warning that Brussels would not strike a deal "at any price". "But I remain convinced, ladies and gentlemen, honorable members, such an agreement is possible for the long term," he said.
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| 'He was trying to breathe': Mom of Oklahoma man who died in cop custody finds new footage hard to watch Posted: 17 Jun 2020 11:34 AM PDT  Derrick Elliott Olie Scott died in police custody in May, 2019. Scott's mother wants charges to be brought against officers.
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| Judge Napolitano on Rayshard Brooks case, fallout from big SCOTUS rulings Posted: 16 Jun 2020 03:52 AM PDT  Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano reacts to Atlanta's mayor declaring Rayshard Brooks' death a murder and the Supreme Court's decisions on California's sanctuary status and employment protections for the LGBT community.
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| A Black pastor was arrested after pulling out a gun while under attack. The sheriff apologized, and now 5 alleged assailants face hate crimes charges. Posted: 16 Jun 2020 05:19 PM PDT  "How dehumanizing … to look at this mob of individuals cheering on the sidelines waving as I was carted off to go to jail," Leon McCray said.
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| Turkey begins offensive against Kurdish rebels in north Iraq Posted: 16 Jun 2020 07:56 PM PDT  Turkey said Wednesday it has airlifted troops into northern Iraq for a cross-border ground operation against Turkey's Kurdish rebels. The airborne-and-land offensive into the border region of Haftanin, some 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the Turkey-Iraq border, was launched following intense artillery fire into the area, said the Defense Ministry in Ankara. The operation by commando forces is being supported by warplanes, attack helicopters, artillery and armed and unarmed drones, according to the ministry's statement posted on Twitter.
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| Early dinosaurs laid leathery, soft-shelled eggs, new research shows — shattering our understanding of dinosaur evolution Posted: 17 Jun 2020 08:00 AM PDT  Until now, all dinosaur eggs found around the world have had hard shells, suggesting that these animals all laid hard-shelled eggs.
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| California is Right to Reopen—The Coronavirus Stats and Science Support It Posted: 16 Jun 2020 04:00 PM PDT  These infection fatality rates are remarkably low and are similar to the fatality rate for the seasonal flu.
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| 'Scurrilous arguments': Michael Flynn's lawyer tells judge he must dismiss criminal case Posted: 17 Jun 2020 10:50 AM PDT  Trump's former national security adviser is the victim of "assassination by political prosecution," the attorney said.
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| Unemployment payments backlog draws hundreds to Kentucky's capital Posted: 17 Jun 2020 02:36 PM PDT  Hundreds of people who lost jobs during the coronavirus crisis but have been unable to get their unemployment insurance checks converged at the Kentucky Capitol in Frankfort early Wednesday to seek in-person help. Margaret Wells worked in retail in Louisville and has been unemployed since April. States have been overwhelmed with the tens of millions of unemployment insurance benefits claims filed during the crisis, with the surge in demand crashing computer systems, clogging phone lines and creating backlogs of pending applications.
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| Cuomo: U.S. government making "historic mistake" on virus advice Posted: 17 Jun 2020 10:41 AM PDT  He announced Tuesday the U.S. Open will be held in New York City this summer, without fans.
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| Florida health care worker and 15 of her friends contract coronavirus on first night out at a bar after months of lockdown Posted: 17 Jun 2020 06:17 AM PDT  A healthcare worker and all 15 of her friends reportedly contracted Covid-19 after spending a night out together at a bar in Jacksonville, Florida as the state moved to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic.Erika Crisp, 40, told local news outlets she and her friends had been staying at home and social distancing because of the novel coronavirus — until they decided to go out earlier this month for drinks.
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| The U.S. Is Catching Up With China in AI Adoption, Kai-Fu Lee Says Posted: 17 Jun 2020 02:28 AM PDT  Lee—the chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures—spoke at a TIME100 Talks focusing on the Asia-Pacific region
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| Revealed: officer who killed Rayshard Brooks accused of covering up 2015 shooting Posted: 17 Jun 2020 08:55 AM PDT  * Garrett Rolfe involved in shooting of black man Jackie Harris * Court documents show police officers did not report incidentThe Atlanta police officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks was accused of covering up an earlier shooting he and other officers participated in, according to a judge who reviewed the case.Garrett Rolfe was fired by the Atlanta police department following what officials called the "unjustified" killing of Brooks on Friday. Rolfe shot Brooks twice in the back as Brooks ran away after a scuffle with officers when they attempted to arrest him. It was among a recent spate of killings of black men by white police officers, which have ignited a national uprising against police brutality and racism.In August 2015, Rolfe and two other officers opened fire on Jackie Jermaine Harris, who they chased after he was caught driving a stolen truck, the Guardian can reveal after reviewing court documents on the incident.However, the shooting was not reported by the police involved. Harris, like Brooks, is African American.Harris rammed a police vehicle and officers shot at him several times inside the truck, striking Harris once and collapsing his lung. Harris survived and later pleaded guilty to charges including theft, property damage, fleeing arrest and damaging a police vehicle.Judge Doris L Downs, during a 2016 court hearing, called the case a "disaster" and said "it's the wildest case I've seen in my 34 years here."Downs said she was so troubled by officers failing to report the shooting that she wanted the matter investigated."None of the police put in the report that they shot the man – none of them. And they sent him to Grady [Memorial Hospital] with collapsed lungs and everything, and the report doesn't mention it," Downs said."I am ethically going to be required to turn all of them in."Downs even suggested state and federal authorities get involved.She said: "What the police did was wrong, and they will have to answer for what they did."It is unclear if any action was taken. Downs could not be reached for comment.The Atlanta police department and Fulton county district attorney's office did not respond to requests for comment.The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said it did not investigate the shooting, according to a spokesperson.Harris echoed the judge's concern about the officers' conduct at his court hearing."I just don't want them to get away with what they did to me," said Harris, who was sentenced to time served and one year's probation.Rolfe was apparently not disciplined, according to a personnel file released by Atlanta police on Tuesday, which listed the 2015 incident only as a "firearm discharge" but did not say how the department addressed the incident. Rolfe could not be reached for comment.Harris's attorney Serena Nunn said police admitted in their report that Harris had been injured during the incident – but not that police shot him.She said: "Being shot in the back and ultimately having your lung collapse is something more than an injury that was caused during the incident.""We do expect officers to uphold the law. I cannot think of a plausible reason as to why they would have omitted that information [about the shooting]," Nunn told the judge.The prosecutor could not say why the shooting was not in the report.Han Chung, who was then a Fulton county assistant district attorney, said: "I've heard some plausible reasons why this may have occurred. Now, I don't know how credible those plausible reasons may be, and I haven't heard it from those officers first-hand."Rolfe was the subject of four citizen's complaints during his six years on the force, none of which were sustained by police. The department disciplined him for three other incidents, including once for "use of force" involving a firearm, a year after the Harris shooting.In a letter to Downs sent from an Atlanta jail, Harris said the public would not be safe as long as Rolfe and the other officers who shot him continued to patrol the city."Not only have I been wronged, but society as well [has been wronged] by allowing this officer to continue to patrol our streets of Metro Atlanta," Harris wrote.
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| North Korea releases photos showing explosion of liaison office jointly run with South Korea Posted: 17 Jun 2020 08:05 AM PDT  The office building was erected just two years ago to serve as a breeding ground for diplomacy between North Korea and South Korea.
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| America's Joint-Service F-111 Aardvark Stood Ready For Nuclear Strikes Posted: 17 Jun 2020 06:00 PM PDT  The strike bomber role meant that it needed to go very low and fast to penetrate enemy air defenses.
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| Venezuela's top court ousts leaders of two opposition parties Posted: 17 Jun 2020 07:12 AM PDT  An election is due to be held in the crisis-hit country and there are fears of government tampering.
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