Author: Harry Hicks

HOUSTON — A federal judge on Wednesday declared illegal a revised version of a federal policy that prevents the deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen agreed with Texas and eight other states suing to stop the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The judge’s ruling was ultimately expected to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, sending the program’s fate before the high court for a third time. Hanen barred the government from approving any new applications but left the program intact for existing recipients during the…

Two people are dead following a shooting spree Monday in the US state of Georgia. Atlanta police arrested a female suspect after two different shootings in a roughly 15-minute period that caused panic throughout the city. “The lookout for both of the shooters we found out quickly was the same person,” said Atlanta Interim Police Chief Darin Schierbaum at a news conference. “It was a female matching the same description that was seen in this area.” The two victims of the first shooting died. The victim from the second shooting was taken to a hospital for treatment. “We do not…

A new, permanent addition to the sprawling National WWII Museum in New Orleans is a three-story complex with displays as daunting as a simulated Nazi concentration camp bunk room, and as inspiring as a violin pieced together from scrap wood by an American prisoner of war. The Liberation Pavilion, which opened Friday, is ambitious in scope. Its exhibits filling 3,065.80 square meters commemorate the end of the war’s death and destruction, emphasize its human costs and capture the horror of those who discovered the aftermath of Nazi atrocities. Films, photos and recorded oral histories recount the joys and challenges awaiting…

US President Joe Biden on Friday said “chances are real” to extend the humanitarian pause between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. “I think the chances are real,” Biden said when asked by a reporter about the chances that the four-day humanitarian pause in Gaza could be extended, during a news conference in Massachusetts. Biden said Friday’s Gaza hostage release is “only a start,” adding that he expects more hostages to be released Saturday and days after that. “Today’s release are the start of a process,” he said, “Over the next few days, we expect that dozens of hostages…

WASHINGTON — Martin Luther King III, along with his wife, Arndrea Waters King, and their 15-year-old daughter, Yolanda, have developed a set of traditions for this time of the year. Each August, they rewatch the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s rapturous address to the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Even if the civil rights icon’s legacy is closer to the Kings than it is for most other families, they see march anniversaries as a teaching moment. “We are like any other family, in the sense that we want to teach our daughter about this moment in history,”…

WASHINGTON — Thousands converged Saturday on the National Mall for the 60th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington, saying a country that remains riven by racial inequality has yet to fulfill his dream. “We have made progress, over the last 60 years, since Dr. King led the March on Washington,” said Alphonso David, president and CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum. “Have we reached the mountaintop? Not by a long shot.” The event was convened by the Kings’ Drum Major Institute and the Rev. Al Sharpton ‘s National Action Network. A host of Black…

The U.S. Department of Justice has asked to join a lawsuit challenging House Bill 1020, arguing the appointment of judges to the Hinds County Circuit Court and creation of a new separate court system in Jackson is racially discriminatory and unconstitutional. Those appointments, which would be made by the state’s white Supreme Court chief justice, and the Capitol Complex Improvement District court shift authority of the criminal justice system away from Hinds County voters, which violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, according to the department.  “This thinly-veiled state takeover is intended to strip power, voice and resources away…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Stepping gingerly over the lawn in their spiky heels, first lady Jill Biden and Yuko Kishida, the wife of Japan’s prime minister, planted a cherry tree at the White House on Monday to honor decades of friendship between their countries. “This is how you always plant a tree,” Biden said, laughing about their shoes as she and Kishida shoveled soil around the base of a Yoshino cherry tree sapling on the south grounds. She welcomed Kishida to the White House and said, “The planting of this tree is a symbol of the friendship between our two nations forever and…

An Orange County woman has been sentenced to more than two decades in prison for a man’s shooting on her boat and her attempts to mislead investigators. San Juan Capistrano resident Sheila Marie Ritze, 42, was sentenced to 21 years and 10 months in federal prison on Monday in connection with the death of a victim identified only as Dao, according to the United States Department of Justice. She faced a maximum charge of life in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the U.S. and making false statements to investigators. In October 2019,…

     BRUSSELS The EU foreign policy chief on Thursday called on both Kosovo and Serbia to implement all parts of the EU-brokered deal that was reached on March 18.
 “The agreement was agreed, it has to be implemented, and there is no room for picking and choosing,” Josep Borrell told reporters on the way to the EU leaders’ summit. He referred to the deal between Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on implementing the EU’s agreement on normalizing the relations.
 The agreement implies the recognition of Kosovo as an independent state by Serbia that Serbian Foreign…