Nation & World A8
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THE DAILY HERALD
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WWW.HERALDNET.COM
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FRIDAY, 05.22.2015
Baltimore police indicted Associated Press BALTIMORE — A grand jury indicted all six officers charged in the case of Freddie Gray, who died of injuries he suffered in police custody, allowing the state’s attorney to press ahead with the most serious charges despite criticism that she was part of an “overzealous prosecution.” The indictments announced Thursday were similar to the charges Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced nearly three weeks ago. The most serious charge for each officer, ranging from second-degree “depraved heart” murder to assault, stood, though some of the lesser alleged offenses had changed. Gray suffered a critical spinal injury April 12 after police handcuffed, shackled and placed him head-first into a
van, Mosby has said. His pleas for medical attention were repeatedly ignored. Gray’s death a week later spawned protests that on two occasions gave way to violence and looting. In the wake of the riots, Democratic Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake implemented a curfew and Republican Gov. Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency. Mosby said prosecutors presented evidence to the grand jury for the past two weeks. Some of the charges were changed based on new information, but she didn’t say what that was. She also did not take questions. “As is often the case, during an ongoing investigation, charges can and should be revised based upon the evidence,” Mosby said. Attorneys for the officers have said in court documents
they are the victims of an “overzealous prosecution” riddled with personal and political conflicts of interest. They said at a minimum, Mosby should be replaced with an independent prosecutor because she had a personal interest in calming unrest in the city that followed Gray’s death and because her husband is a city councilman who represents the areas most impacted by upheaval. Gray’s death became a symbol of what protesters say is a pattern of police brutality against African-Americans in Baltimore. Following Gray’s death, the Justice Department announced a civil rights investigation of the Baltimore Police Department to search for discriminatory policing practices and examine allegations that officers too often use excessive force and make
unconstitutional searches and arrests. Two officers, Edward Nero and Garrett Miller, were indicted on second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office for “failure to perform a duty regarding the safety of a prisoner” and for an illegal arrest, Mosby said. The indictments do not include the falseimprisonment charge both officers initially faced. Caesar Goodson, who drove the van, faces manslaughter and a second-degree “depraved heart” murder charge, as well as misconduct in office and second-degree assault. Sgt. Alicia White, Lt. Brian Rice and Officer William Porter are each charged with manslaughter, second-degree assault and misconduct in office. Those officers also face recklessendangerment charges.
Dems demand cash for Amtrak Associated Press WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats on Thursday demanded that Republicans provide more money for Amtrak so the railroad can tackle a $21 billion maintenance and repair backlog, including replacing tunnels more than a century old. Democrats cited last week’s deadly crash in Philadelphia and said the backlog is compromising safety and service. Investigators have said the crash could have been prevented if safety technology called positive train control had been in operation. The technology can prevent derailments caused by excessive speed and collisions between trains. Amtrak says the system will be ready by year’s end throughout the Northeast Corridor, which stretches from Boston to Washington, with the exception of some track owned by commuter railroads in New York. Democrats want Congress to give Amtrak the entire $2 billion in subsidies the railroad requested for the budget year that starts Oct. 1. They say GOP lawmakers have starved the railroad financially for years. A Republican-controlled House panel approved a spending bill the day after the crash that provides Amtrak with $1.1 billion, a cut of $251 million from this year. Republicans have long criticized the nation’s longdistance passenger railroad as wasteful and inefficient. Outside the busy Northeast Corridor, Amtrak service generally doesn’t turn a profit. Amtrak more heavily serves urban areas in the Northeast,
Pentagon will send new rockets to Iraq WASHINGTON — An expedited shipment of 2,000 lightweight shoulder-fired weapons intended to help the Iraqi army stop the Islamic State group’s use of car bombs should arrive in Iraq as soon as next week, the Pentagon said Thursday. The shipment is among a variety of weapons and equipment the U.S. agreed to send to Iraq after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited Washington in April to plead for more help in fighting extremists. A Pentagon spokesman said the shipment of shoulder-fired AT-4 weapons was not in response to the fall of Ramadi over the weekend, although the militants’ effective use of car bombs there prompted the White House to consider ways of strengthening U.S. support for Iraq.
Pot discussions with doctors A GOP-controlled Senate panel Wednesday approved a plan to permit veterans to receive information about medical marijuana from government doctors. The proposal by freshman Sen. Steve Daines would lift a rule blocking Department of Veterans Affairs doctors from discussing the pros or cons of medical pot with their patients. They would still not be able to prescribe it. Daines said veterans should be able to “talk openly and freely with their doctor about all options available to them.”
Kids likely killed in attack Two children were likely killed during an American airstrike targeting al-Qaida-linked militants in Syria last year, and two other adults were wounded, according to an investigation released Thursday by the U.S. military. The 76-page report concludes that the strikes were designed to destroy Khorasan Group extremists, bomb-making experts, meeting places and facilities where explosives were made and stored. The investigation found that the killed and wounded civilians probably lived near one of the targeted locations.
Georgia: Gay Scout leaders MARK LENNIHAN / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Amtrak passengers arrive in New York’s Penn Station from Philadelphia on Monday. Amtrak trains began rolling again Monday on the busy Northeast Corridor after a deadly crash in Philadelphia on May 12.
Midwest and West Coast that are predominantly served by Democrats than less populated, GOP-leaning states in the South and West. The budget that President Barack Obama submitted to Congress in February proposed allotting Amtrak $2.5 billion next year, with most of the increase dedicated to capital investment in tracks, tunnels and bridges. “Throughout the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak has some infrastructure that is so old, it was built and put into service when Jesse James and Butch Cassidy were still alive and robbing trains,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. One tunnel in Maryland that needs replacement is
more than 140 years old. Tunnels under the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey are over 100 years old. “We should not be putting Amtrak in a position of having to choose between safety, like positive train control and other technologies, and investing in fixing crumbling bridges or crumbling infrastructure,” said Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. Also Thursday, the Federal Railroad Administration issued an emergency order requiring Amtrak to make computer and transponder changes so that trains traveling northeast toward Frankford Junction in Philadelphia can be automatically stopped if they attempt to enter a curve there at an excessive speed. Amtrak
Northeast Regional train 188 was traveling at 106 mph as it approached the curve May 12. The posted speed limit for the curve is 50 mph. The train derailed, tossing cars into a mangled heap. Eight people were killed and about 200 injured in the crash. The agency also said it is requiring that Amtrak develop a plan over the next 20 days to assess other curves in the Northeast Corridor and whether modifications are necessary to train control equipment or signal systems. Administration officials also said they plan to announce other safety steps to address speed problems at other passenger railroads around the country in the next few weeks.
Islamists tighten grip on Palmyra The Washington Post BAGHDAD — Islamic State militants tightened their hold on the Syrian city of Palmyra on Thursday, leaving decapitated bodies of suspected opponents in the streets as announcements from mosque loudspeakers urged residents to turn in government soldiers. The militants’ capture of Palmyra has raised concerns about the fate of the ancient ruins in the city, a UNESCO World Heritage site about 130 miles northeast of the Syrian capital. Activists also have warned that a large civilian population remains in Palmyra, despite government claims that its fighters secured the residents’ exit before retreating. The militants’ advance came less than a week after the Islamic State seized the Iraqi city of Ramadi, undermining U.S. assertions that the
ACROSS THE U.S.
The ruins of the ancient Roman city of Palmyra
group is largely on the defensive after months of airstrikes by an international coalition. The group continued to gain ground east of Ramadi on Thursday. Palmyra’s fall also marks the first time that Islamic State forces have seized a major population center directly from the Syrian government. Previous advances came against rebel groups. The Islamic State said Thursday it had taken complete
SANA
control of the city, including its notorious prison and military airport. Pro-government forces “collapsed and fled,” it said. A day after Palmyra fell, mosques announced Thursday morning that families hiding regime soldiers should turn them over to Islamic State authorities, activists said. As militants searched door to door, grisly images showing beheaded bodies on the city’s streets circulated on social media. The dead were said
to be members of the Shaitat tribe. The tribe paid a heavy price for rising up against the Islamic State last year; as many as 700 members were massacred in a failed revolt. Activists estimate that more than 100,000 civilians may still be in the city, whose population had swelled because of an influx of internally displaced people from other parts of Syria. There were no immediate reports of damage to Palmyra’s famed archaeological site, including the remains of temples and artifacts that trace the area’s rich legacy as a commercial and political crossroads dating back more than 2,000 years. But the Islamic State, ostensibly acting in the name of religious purity, has destroyed pre-Islamic treasures in northern Iraq that it deemed blasphemous, including other UNESCO heritage sites such as Hatra and Nimrud.
Robert Gates, president of the Boy Scouts of America, said Thursday that the organization’s ban on gay leaders “cannot be sustained” and urged the group to end its national ban. “I truly fear that any other alternative will be the end of us as a national movement,” the former CIA director and secretary of defense said in Atlanta at the Scouts’ annual national meeting. He recommended giving local Scout groups the authority to decide whether to allow gay Scout leaders. “We must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be,” he said.
California: Capsule returns A SpaceX Dragon capsule is back on Earth with a load of cargo, after a trip home from the International Space Station. The capsule, containing more than 3,000 pounds of experiments and equipment, splashed into the Pacific just off the California coast Thursday less than six hours after its station departure. NASA expects to receive its precious science samples within two days, after the spacecraft is transported to a port near Los Angeles. The Dragon capsule arrived at the orbiting lab last month.
Sex reassignment surgery A federal appeals court delayed sex reassignment surgery for a transgender prison inmate Thursday, hours after a state panel recommended that she be paroled. The decisions make it less likely that convicted killer Michelle-Lael Norsworthy will receive the prison-funded surgery before she is released. Norsworthy, 51, has lived as a woman since the 1990s and was scheduled for the procedure July 1 after a judge ordered the state to provide it as soon as possible.
AROUND THE WORLD Canada: Harper polls well Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose Conservatives trailed in polls for almost two years, is back in the driver’s seat. A decline in support for Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, coupled with rising support for the New Democratic Party, suggest the sort of vote splitting to Harper’s left that opens the door for a fourth straight election victory in October, pollster Nik Nanos said. Harper, who is perceived as a strong economic steward, may also be benefiting from global uncertainty that makes voters reluctant to seek change, a situation Nanos calls a “sweet spot” for the Prime Minister. From Herald news services