Month: June 2024

The gunman who opened fire in an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, killing five and injuring over a dozen more in 2022, was sentenced on federal charges on Tuesday. Daniel Davis Aston, Kelly Loving, Derrick Rump, Ashley Paugh and Raymond Green Vance were the victims killed in the attack.

After originally pleading not guilty, the shooter, Anderson Lee Aldrich, 24, accepted a plea deal and pleaded guilty to each of the 74 charges of violating provisions of the Matthew Shepard And James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 as well as gun crimes in the Club Q shooting. Aldrich was given 55 concurrent life sentences without the possibility of parole, to be followed by a 190-year sentence of imprisonment. Aldrich is already serving five consecutive life terms and an additional 2,212 years without the possibility of parole at the Wyoming State Penitentiary after pleading guilty in 2023 to state charges for the attack.

Earlier this year, prosecutors said earlier this year they would not seek the death penalty. United States District Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney, the first LGBTQ+ federal judge to serve in Colorado, handed down the sentence after hearing from the victims’ families and survivors of the shooting, many of whom were disappointed Aldrich would not face a capital sentence. Sweeney said they not have the discretion to impose a different sentence, citing the plea agreement, but emphasized the importance of Aldrich’s decision to plead guilty, saying that Aldrich admitted to carrying out the attack because of the victims’ “actual or perceived gender identity or sexual orientation.” Sweeney said during sentencing: “you [Aldrich] went to this community’s safe space and mass murdered people .. This community is much stronger than you, stronger than your armor and stronger than your weapons and sure as hell stronger than your hatred.”

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On Tuesday, a New York Court declined to hear an appeal to remove the gag order in former President Donald Trump’s hush-money conviction case. Per NBC News, the New York Court of Appeals said it was dismissing Trump’s appeal “upon the ground that no substantial constitutional question is directly involved,” meaning the gag order remains in effect.

Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw Trump’s criminal conviction case, prohibited Trump from discussing witnesses, jurors and others associated with his criminal trial, which ended in a conviction last month. The judge himself and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg were exempt. An intermediate appellate court upheld the gag order, finding Merchan “properly weighed petitioner’s First Amendment Rights against the court’s historical commitment to ensuring the fair administration of justice in criminal cases and the right of persons related or tangentially related to the criminal proceedings from being free from threats, intimidation, harassment, and harm.”

Trump was found guilty in May by a jury of his peers on all 34 counts against him in his New York hush-money trial, for allegedly falsifying business documents in an attempt to cover up an affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels. He has since denied the affair and pleaded not guilty to all charges prior to his conviction while maintaining his innocence

Trump has objected to the gag order, as well as violating the court order multiple times during the trial and has been fined $10,000 in the process. Trump’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 11, four days before the July 15 start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee where Trump is expected to accept the Republican nomination, in-person or virtually.

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Officials tell The Associated Press and CNN that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved his war cabinet, which was responsible for key decisions relating to the Israel-Hamas conflict. The war cabinet, set up five days after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks against Israel on October 7, had five members: Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, opposition leader Benny Gantz, and two “observers,” Ron Dermer and Gadi Eisenkot. Israeli official said that decision-making will now move back to the government’s main security cabinet, adding that Netanyahu “will hold smaller forums on sensitive matters.”

Netanyahu’s decision comes just over a week after opposition leader Benny Gantz withdrew from the cabinet, stating that the prime minister was making “total victory impossible.” In announcing his resignation, Gantz said the government needs to put the return of the hostages seized Oct. 7 by Hamas “above political survival.” Gantz said in announcing his resignation: “Months after the October disaster, the situation in the country and in the decision-making cabinet has changed. Netanyahu and his partners have turned unity into a void call who has no cover. Fateful strategic decisions are met with hesitancy and procrastination due to political considerations. Netanyahu is preventing us from progressing to a real victory. That is why we are leaving the emergency government today with a heavy heart, but with a whole heart.”

Netanyahu’s wartime decision-making has been criticized, with those saying he has been influenced by ultranationalists in his government who oppose a deal that would bring about a cease-fire in exchange for the release of hostages. Netanyahu has denied the accusation, saying he has the country’s best interests in mind.

More than 37,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its offensive in the enclave following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.

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In a New York Times opinion essay published Monday, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy called for social media companies to be required to use safety warning labels, and asked Congress to take action in ordering social media platforms to post warning labels similar to those attached to tobacco or alcohol products

Murthy wrote in the Times op-ed that statistics are clear about the effect social media has on adolescents, particularly those who are facing anxiety and depression issues. Murthy cited research that shows social media could be negatively impacting youth mental health, and added that a surgeon general’s warning on social media platforms could raise awareness for parents about the potential harm of the platforms (per USA TODAY.) He said that while warning labels only won’t protect young people it’s a first step in the acknowledgment of its dangers.

Murthy wrote: “The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency — and social media has emerged as an important contributor. Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms .. One of the worst things for a parent is to know your children are in danger yet be unable to do anything about it. That is how parents tell me they feel when it comes to social media — helpless and alone in the face of toxic content and hidden harms.”

The Surgeon General said that the average time adolescents spend on social media had increased to 4.8 hours a day in the summer of 2023, adding: “it is time to require a surgeon general’s warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents. A surgeon general’s warning label, which requires Congressional action, would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proven safe .. To be clear, a warning label would not, on its own, make social media safe for young people. The advisory I issued a year ago about social media and young people’s mental health included specific recommendations.”

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