News You Ought to Know
American Airlines bans man who refused to wear face mask
By DAVID KOENIG
DALLAS (AP) — American Airlines has banned a man who was kicked off a plane for refusing to wear a face covering, among the first such incidents since airlines promised to step up enforcement of their mask rules.
A spokesman for American said that the airline decided to ban the man after reviewing the incident, which occurred at New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
According to the airline, conservative activist Brandon Straka ignored requests by crew members to wear a mask while the plane with 122 passengers prepared to leave for Dallas-Fort Worth. He was ordered off the 172-seat plane and put on a later flight.
American said Straka will be banned until the airline drops its requirement that passengers and crew members wear face coverings to limit spread of the virus that causes COVID-19.
“We are committed to protecting the safety and well-being of our customers and team members, which is why we strengthened enforcement of our policy for required face coverings on board,” said airline spokesman Ross Feinstein. “We expect customers who choose to fly with us to comply with these policies, and if necessary, we will deny future travel for customers who refuse to do so.”
That is true — it is only a policy by the airlines. The Federal Aviation Administration has declined requests by airlines and their labor unions to make masks mandatory.
American and other leading U.S. airlines announced the mask rules last month. This week, they vowed to step up enforcement after several instances in which people complained about other passengers not covering their faces.
El Paso man arrested for video threat to kill protesters
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — An El Paso man who allegedly threatened to kill Black Lives Matter protesters in a video posted online has been arrested and faces a federal charge of making a threat over the internet, the FBI said.
FBI agents arrested 42-year-old Manuel Flores Monday morning. He’s accused of recording and uploading a video on YouTube making threats to shoot Black Lives Matter protesters in the Dallas area, daring activists to “stop him,” according to El Paso Times.
In the video, what appears to be an AR-15 riffle can be seen at the feet of a man who the FBI later identified as Flores, authorities said in a news release.
The investigation began Saturday following an online tip where the FBI tracked down the posting to Flores’ phone.
Flores told agents he had been drinking and didn’t remember what he said on the video, according to the complaint. He video has since been deleted.
Flores remains in custody of the U.S. Marshals Service awaiting transfer to El Paso. If convicted, he faces up to five years in federal prison.
Pence to visit Texas for ‘Freedom’ event at megachurch
DALLAS (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence will visit Texas later this month for a “Celebrate Freedom” event at a Dallas megachurch, officials said Wednesday.
Pence’s office said the vice president will travel to Dallas on June 28 and will visit First Baptist Church. He will also speak at the church’s event, which is described as “an annual celebration of America’s freedom and spiritual foundation.”
Robert Jeffress, the pastor of the 14,000-member, Southern Baptist church, is one of President Donald Trump’s leading allies among conservative evangelical Christians.
This weekend, Pence is scheduled to attend Trump’s first campaign rally since the coronavirus campaign began in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He also spent time in Iowa this week, visiting a diner and speaking at a Winnebago facility.
In family meeting, Trump asks for reviews of police killings
By JAKE BLEIBERG
DALLAS (AP) — Dwayne Palmer and his mother arrived at the White House wary, worried about being “used as political pawns” when President Donald Trump invited them and other families of other black people killed in interactions with law enforcement.
But during the meeting, Trump listened attentively as the families told stories of their loved ones’ deaths, and told Attorney General William Barr to see that the cases are looked into, according to Palmer and others who attended.
Trump and other officials met with six families at the White House Tuesday, ahead of his signing of an executive order that he said would encourage better police practices. Trump made no mention of the roiling national debate over racism during the Rose Garden signing ceremony, and the families did not attend.
But the earlier meeting left Palmer with hope that federal investigators may finally reveal what happened to his brother, Everett Palmer Jr., whose 2018 death in a Pennsylvania county jail remains largely unexplained.
The president and other officials were gracious and listened respectfully as he recounted what’s know of his brother’s death, Palmer said. Afterward, he said, the president turned to Barr and told him to have the Justice Department review the case.
“We are very hopeful, skeptically hopeful, that the president’s pledge and direction to Attorney General Barr, pursuant to my brother’s case, is a promise that will actually be kept,” Palmer told The Associated Press Wednesday.
Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney who represents many of the families whose losses have spurred protests nationwide, said Trump gave Barr similar directions on other cases.
Police officer involved in Breonna Taylor shooting fired
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Louisville Metro police department has fired one of the police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, more than three months after the 26-year-old Black woman was killed in her home.
A termination letter sent to Officer Brett Hankison released by the city’s police department Tuesday said Hankinson violated procedures by showing “extreme indifference to the value of human life” when he “wantonly and blindly” shot 10 rounds of gunfire into Taylor’s apartment in March. The letter also said Hankison, who is white, violated the rule against using deadly force.
Taylor was shot eight times by officers who burst into her Louisville home using a no-knock warrant during a March 13 narcotics investigation. The warrant to search her home was in connection with a suspect who did not live there, and no drugs were found inside.
The no-knock search warrant that allows police to enter without first announcing their presence was recently banned by Louisville’s Metro Council.
The letter said Hankison fired the rounds “without supporting facts” that the deadly force was directed at a person posing an immediate threat.
“I find your conduct a shock to the conscience,” interim Louisville Police Chief Robert Schroeder said in the letter. “Your actions have brought discredit upon yourself and the Department.”
Trump’s brother seeks to halt family tell-all book
By MICHAEL BALSAMO
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s brother is asking a New York City judge to prevent the president’s niece from publishing a tell-all book, which is expected to be released later this month.
In court papers, Robert Trump’s lawyers argue that Mary Trump and others had signed a settlement agreement in the late 1990s that included a confidentially clause explicitly saying they would not “publish any account concerning the litigation or their relationship,” unless they all agreed.
The settlement agreement related to the will of Donald Trump’s father, New York real estate developer Fred Trump.
“Confidentiality was at the essence of the Settlement agreement,” the court papers say.
Robert Trump argues the publication of the book is prohibited by the settlement agreement reached in 2001 and he never consented to it being published. Mary Trump is the daughter of Fred Trump Jr., the president’s older brother, who died in 1981.
A description of the book — titled “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man” — on Amazon says it describes “a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse.”
“She explains how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who currently occupies the Oval Office, including the strange and harmful relationship between Fred Trump and his two oldest sons, Fred Jr. and Donald,” the online description says.
The motion seeks an injunction to prevent Mary Trump and the book’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, from releasing it.
“President Trump and his siblings are seeking to suppress a book that will discuss matters of utmost public importance,” attorney Theodore Boutrous Jr., a representative for Mary Trump, said in a statement. “They are pursuing this unlawful prior restraint because they do not want the American people to know the truth. The courts will not tolerate this brazen and baseless effort to squelch speech in violation of the First Amendment.”
A Simon & Schuster official said in a statement he was confident the attempt to block publication would fail.
North Texan charged with defrauding COVID-19 relief fund
DALLAS (AP) — A North Texas man was arrested Tuesday after a federal indictment accused him of applying fraudulently for $3 million from the federal coronavirus relief fund.
Federal prosecutors say Fahad Shah, 44, of Murphy, was arrested on three counts of wire fraud, one count of making false statements to a bank and four counts of money laundering.
A federal indictment accuses the suburban Dallas man of fraudulently applying for $3 million in forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans. The indictment says he got more than $1.5 million that he used to buy a Tesla and make personal investments and home mortgage payments.
