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Supreme Court temporarily extends women's access to a widely used abortion pill
Local Legal Events |
2026/05/12 22:47
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The Supreme Court is leaving women's access to a widely used abortion pill untouched until at least Thursday, while the justices consider whether to allow restrictions on the drug, mifepristone, to take effect. Justice Samuel Alito's order Monday allows women seeking abortions to continue obtaining the pill at pharmacies or through the mail, without an in-person visit to a doctor. It prevents restrictions on mifepristone imposed by a federal appeals court from taking effect for the time being. The court is dealing with its latest abortion controversy four years after its conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed more than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion outright. The case before the court stems from a lawsuit Louisiana filed to roll back the Food and Drug Administration's rules on how mifepristone can be prescribed. The state claims the policy undermines the ban there, and it questions the safety of the drug, which was first approved in 2000 and has repeatedly been deemed safe and effective by FDA scientists. Lower courts concluded that Louisiana is likely to prevail, and a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that mail access and telehealth visits should be suspended while the case plays out. The drug is most often used for abortion in combination with another drug, misoprostol. Medication abortions accounted for nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. in 2023, the last year for which statistics are available. The current dispute is similar to one that reached the court three years ago. Lower courts then also sought to restrict access to mifepristone, in a case brought by physicians who oppose abortion. They filed suit in the months after the court overturned Roe. The Supreme Court blocked the 5th Circuit ruling from taking effect over the dissenting votes of Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas. Then, in 2024, the high court unanimously dismissed the doctors' suit, reasoning they did not have the legal right, or standing, to sue. In the current dispute, mainstream medical groups, the pharmaceutical industry and Democratic members of Congress have weighed in cautioning the court against limiting access to the drug. Pharmaceutical companies said a ruling for abortion opponents would upend the drug approval process. The FDA has eased a number of restrictions initially placed on the drug, including who can prescribe it, how it is dispensed and what kinds of safety complications must be reported. Despite those determinations, abortion opponents have been challenging the safety of mifepristone for more than 25 years. They have filed a series of petitions and lawsuits against the agency, generally alleging that it violated federal law by overlooking safety issues with the pill. President Donald Trump's administration has been unusually quiet at the Supreme Court. It declined to file a written brief recommending what the court should do, even though federal regulations are at issue. The case puts Trump's Republican administration in a difficult place. Trump has relied on the political support of anti-abortion groups but has also seen ballot question and poll results that show Americans generally support abortion rights. Both sides took the silence as an implicit endorsement of the appellate ruling. Alito is both the justice in charge of handling emergency appeals from Louisiana and the author of the 2022 decision that declared abortion is not a constitutional right and returned the issue to the states. |
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Man who sprayed vinegar at Rep. Ilhan Omar during town hall pleads guilty to assault
Local Legal Events |
2026/05/08 21:55
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A man who sprayed vinegar at Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar at a town hall meeting in Minneapolis pleaded guilty to assault Thursday in federal court after reaching a deal with prosecutors. Anthony Kazmierczak, 55, is awaiting sentencing. Kazmierczak, dressed in bright orange jail clothing, gave only a fragmentary explanation Thursday of the Jan. 27 assault, which came as the city was already on edge after the fatal shootings of two people by federal agents during a White House crackdown that brought thousands of immigration officers to Minnesota. After being asked what he remembered of the assault, he told U.S. District Judge Joan N. Ericksen: "It's fuzzy." Kazmierczak, who was in the audience during Omar's January town hall, leaped up when the representative called for the ouster of then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. He sprayed liquid from a syringe as court documents say he shouted that Noem would not resign and that Omar was "splitting Minnesota apart." Security officers tackled Kazmierczak, who told them the liquid was vinegar. "I didn't want anybody to think she was in danger," he said Thursday. Omar, who was not injured, continued with the town hall after the arrest. Authorities later determined he'd sprayed her with a mixture of water and apple cider vinegar. He was charged with assaulting a U.S. officer. Court documents say Kazmierczak, a critic of Omar who has made online posts supportive of President Donald Trump, told a close associate several years ago that "somebody should kill" her. Omar, a refugee from Somalia, has long been a target of Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric. After she was elected seven years ago, Trump said she should "go back" to her home country. He has described her as "garbage" and said she should be investigated. Trump has also accused Omar of staging the attack, telling ABC News, "She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her." On Thursday, Kazmierczak told Erickson that he was being treated for Parkinson's disease, and that he'd been diagnosed with ADHD or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and a form of post-traumatic stress. After his arrest, his then-attorney said that he did not have access to the medications he needed for Parkinson's and other serious conditions. Minnesota court records show that Kazmierczak, who was convicted of felony auto theft in 1989, has been arrested multiple times for driving under the influence and has had numerous traffic citations. There are also indications he has had significant financial problems, including two bankruptcy filings. In social media posts, Kazmierczak had criticized former President Joe Biden and referred to Democrats as "angry and liars." Trump wants the U.S. to be "stronger and more prosperous," he wrote. Threats against members of Congress have increased in recent years, peaking in 2021 following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters before dipping slightly, only to climb again, according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Capitol Police. |
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US soldier used classified intel to win $400K Polymarket bet on Maduro raid
Local Legal Events |
2026/04/24 23:59
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A U.S. special forces soldier involved in the military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been charged with using classified information about the mission to win more than $400,000 in an online betting market, federal officials announced Thursday. Gannon Ken Van Dyke was part of the operation to capture Maduro in January and used his access to classified information to make money on the prediction market site Polymarket, the federal prosecutor's office in New York said. He has been charged by the Justice Department with unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction. He could face years in prison. Van Dyke, 38, was involved in the planning and execution of capturing Maduro for about a month beginning Dec. 8, 2025, according to the federal prosecutor's office. Even though he signed nondisclosure agreements promising to not divulge "any classified or sensitive information" related to the operations, prosecutors say the Army soldier used this information to make a series of bets related to Maduro being out of power by Jan. 31, 2026. "This involved a U.S. soldier who allegedly took advantage of his position to profit off of a righteous military operation," FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post to social media. A telephone number listed for Van Dyke in public records was not in service. There was not yet an attorney listed for him in court documents. Polymarket, one of the largest prediction markets in the world, said it had found someone trading on classified government information, alerted the U.S. Department of Justice and "cooperated with their investigation." "Insider trading has no place on Polymarket," the company said in a statement. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates prediction markets, announced Thursday it had filed a parallel complaint against Van Dyke. That complaint alleges that Van Dyke moved $35,000 from his personal bank account into a cryptocurrency exchange account on Dec. 26 — a little over a week before U.S. forces would fly into Caracas and seize Maduro. Van Dyke used more than $32,500 to make a series of bets on when Maduro might be removed from power, according to the complaint. He placed those bets between Dec. 30 and Jan. 2, with the vast majority occurring the night of Jan. 2 — just hours before the first missiles would fall on Caracas. In the early hours of Jan. 3, President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform a photo of the now-captured Venezuelan leader, wearing a gray sweatsuit, headphones and a blindfold. The bets Van Dyke made on Maduro leaving power resulted in "more than $404,000 of profits," the complaint said. Bets on three other Venezuela-related contracts netted the solider more than $5,000, according to the document. "The defendant was entrusted with confidential information about U.S. operations and yet took action that endangered U.S. national security and put the lives of American service members in harm's way," said Michael Selig, the commission's chairman. The massive profits from the well-timed bets aroused public attention days after the raid and brought bipartisan calls for stricter regulation of the markets where people can wager on just about anything. Officials allege that shortly after the operation, Van Dyke put most of the money he won in a foreign cryptocurrency vault and then into a new brokerage account. He also asked Polymarket to delete his account, saying he had lost access to his email associated with the account, according to the federal prosecutor's office. |
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Tiger Woods says he'll seek treatment after pleading not guilty to DUI
Local Legal Events |
2026/04/06 07:47
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Tiger Woods said Tuesday he is stepping away to seek treatment, four days after his vehicle crashed in Florida and he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. He will miss the Masters for the second straight year. "This is necessary in order for me to prioritize my well-being and work toward lasting recovery," Woods said in social media posts. Woods pleaded not guilty in his driving under the influence case in Florida on Tuesday, hours after a sheriff's report said deputies found two pain pills in his pocket and he showed signs of impairment after his SUV clipped a trailer and rolled over on its side. The online court docket for Martin County showed Woods entered a written plea of not guilty and planned to waive his April 23 arraignment hearing. It's the second time Woods has taken a leave following a car crash. In 2009, after his SUV plowed into a fire hydrant and tree outside his home near Orlando, he took a leave of absence to work on being a better person. That lasted four months and he returned at the Masters. Woods' eyes were bloodshot and glassy, his pupils dilated and he had opioid pills — identified as hydrocodone — on him when interviewed at the scene of the crash, according to the arrest report released by the Martin County Sheriff's Office. Woods' movements were slow and lethargic, he was sweating as he talked to deputies in the back seat of an air-conditioned car and he told them he had taken prescription medication earlier in the morning, according to the report. Woods told deputies he had been looking at his phone and fiddling with the radio moments before he hit the trailer, the report said. Woods has not played an official event since the 2024 British Open. He was recovering from a seventh back surgery in October and was trying to return at the Masters, where he is a five-time champion. "I'm committed to take the time needed to return in a healthier, stronger and more focused place, both personally and professionally," Woods said in his statement. Woods will not be in Augusta, Georgia, where he was to appear with Masters chairman Fred Ridley to celebrate the opening of a refurbished municipal course that involved Woods, or for the prestigious Masters Club dinner for champions. "Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament fully support Tiger Woods as he focuses on his well-being. Although Tiger will not be joining us in person next week, his presence will be felt here in Augusta," Ridley said in a statement. Woods serves a key role on the PGA Tour board by leading its Future Competition Committee reshaping the schedule. A tour spokesman said Woods did not take part in Tuesday's meeting, and the work would continue in his absence. Woods was traveling at high speeds on a beachside, residential road on Jupiter Island with a 30 mph speed limit when the accident occurred. The truck had $5,000 in damage, according to the report. |
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