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AP News in Brief at 9:04 p.m. EDT
Trump returns to New York to face historic criminal charges
NEW YORK (AP) - Former President Donald Trump returned to New York on Monday to face his historic booking and arraignment on hush money charges related to allegations of sexual encounters.
The nation's largest city bolstered security and warned potential protesters it was "not a playground for your misplaced anger."
Trump's long day started with a motorcade ride from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to his red, white and blue Boeing 757, emblazoned with his name in gold letters - all carried live on television. The mini-parade took him past supporters waving banners and cheering, decrying the case against him, which stems from payments made during his 2016 campaign, as politically motivated.
Already months into a third campaign to reclaim the White House he lost to President Joe Biden in 2020, Trump and his advisers seemed to relish the attention. Cable networks followed his plane at airports in Florida and New York with video from the air, and a small group of senior campaign aides were joined aboard by his son Eric Trump, who eagerly posted photos of the wall-to-wall coverage from his seat.
The scene was quite different in New York, where Trump will be arraigned Tuesday - facing a judge in the city where he built a national profile in business and entertainment but became deeply unpopular as he moved into politics.
Prosecutors say their case against him has nothing to do with politics and have defended the work of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is leading it. City leaders urged calm.
"While there may be some rabble rousers thinking about coming to our city tomorrow, our message is clear and simple: Control yourselves," said New York Mayor Eric Adams.
"New York City is our home. ... We are the safest large city in America because we respect the rule of law."
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Nashville police: School shooter planned attack for months
NASHVILLE, Tenn.
(AP) - As students across Nashville walked out of class on Monday to protest gun violence at the Tennessee Capitol following a school shooting last week, police said the person who killed six people, including three 9-year-old children, had been planning the massacre for months.
Police have not established a motive for the shootings at The Covenant School, a small Christian elementary school where the 28-year-old shooter was once a student, according to a Monday news release from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.
Both Nashville police and FBI agents continue to review writings left behind by Audrey Hale, both in Hale's vehicle and home, police said.
"It is known that Hale considered the actions of other mass murderers," police said.
The three children who were killed in the shooting were Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney.
The three adults were Katherine Koonce, 60, the head of the school, custodian Mike Hill, 61, and 61-year-old substitute teacher Cynthia Peak.
Hale fired 152 rounds during the attack before being killed by police. That included 126 rifle rounds and 26 nine-millimeter rounds, according to police.
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'We´ll kill you': Troops film boys' killings in Burkina Faso
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) - It was a walk 16-year-old Adama had done countless times, feeding the cows not far from his grandmother's house in northern Burkina Faso.
But one day in mid-February, the teen who dreamed of becoming an imam didn´t come home.
The next time his family saw him, it was in a harrowing cellphone video circulating on social media in the days after his disappearance.
Adama lay alongside six other bloodied boys, their hands bound and most stripped to the waist. They were surrounded by about a dozen men, many in military fatigues, walking among the bodies, some taking video.
Sprinting through the frame, one man came to a halt over Adama and slammed a rock onto his head.
As blood streamed from the jagged wound, the man shooting the video chuckled.
"This one ... was still alive," said the man, referring to Adama, whose last name is being withheld by The Associated Press out of concern for the safety of his family.
"Good-for-nothing! You don´t have anything to do but to kill people. We´ll kill you one after another."
Burkina Faso's military has denied responsibility for the killings, which are a potential war crime under international law.
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Veto stands: Transgender pronouns OK in North Dakota schools
Teachers in North Dakota can still refer to transgender students by the personal pronouns they use, Lancer tactical m4 after lawmakers on Monday failed to override the governor´s veto of a controversial bill to place restrictions on educators.
House lawmakers fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to block the veto, days after Republican Gov.
Doug Burgum´s office announced the veto and the Senate overrode it.
The bill would have prohibited public school teachers and employees from acknowledging the personal pronouns a transgender student uses, unless they received permission from the student´s parents as well as a school administrator.
It would have also prohibited government agencies from requiring employees to acknowledge the pronouns a transgender colleagues uses.
Republican lawmakers across the U.S. have drafted hundreds of laws this year to push back on LGBTQ+ freedoms, particularly seeking to regulate aspects of transgender people´s lives including gender-affirming health care, bathroom use, athletics and drag performances.
"Ask yourself, does Senate Bill 2231 treat others the way you would want to be treated?" Democratic Rep.
Emily O´Brien of Grand Forks said on the House floor, adding that overriding the veto would perpetuate "discrimination, hatred or prejudice."
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Community colleges are reeling. 'The reckoning is here.´
When Santos Enrique Camara arrived at Shoreline Community College in Washington state to study audio engineering, he quickly felt lost.
"It´s like a weird maze," remembered Camara, who was 19 at the time and had finished high school with a 4.0 grade-point average.
"You need help with your classes and financial aid? Well, here, take a number and run from office to office and see if you can figure it out."
Advocates for community colleges defend them as the underdogs of America´s higher education system, left to serve the students who need the most support but without the money to provide it.
Critics contend this has become an excuse for poor success rates and for the kind of faceless bureaucracies that ultimately led Camara to drop out after two semesters. He now works in a restaurant and plays in two bands.
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EDITOR´S NOTE: This story is part of Saving the College Dream, a collaboration between AL.com, The Associated Press, The Christian Science Monitor, The Dallas Morning News, The Hechinger Report, The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina, and The Seattle Times, with support from the Solutions Journalism Network.
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DeSantis signs bill to carry concealed guns without a permit
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.
(AP) - Floridians will be able to carry concealed guns without a permit under a bill Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Monday, giving the governor another legislative victory as he prepares a campaign for president.
The governor signed the bill in a private ceremony in his office.
His only immediate public comment was, "Constitutional Carry is in the books," which he said in a three-paragraph news release.
The new law will allow anyone who can legally own a gun in Florida to carry one without a permit.
It means training and a background check will not be required to carry concealed guns in public. It takes effect July 1.
The arguments over the legislation were divided along political lines, with Republicans saying law-abiding citizens have a right to carry guns and protect themselves.
They say most people will still want to get a permit because it will allow them to carry concealed weapons in states with reciprocal agreements and to be able to purchase guns without a waiting period.
However, Democrats and gun safety advocates -- pointing to mass shootings in Florida like the massacre at the 2016 Pulse nightclub in Orlando and the deadly 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland - say the new law will only make the state more dangerous.
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Teacher shot by 6-year-old student files $40 million lawsuit
RICHMOND, Va.
(AP) - A Virginia teacher who was shot and seriously wounded by her 6-year-old student filed a lawsuit Monday seeking $40 million in damages from school officials, accusing them of gross negligence and of ignoring multiple warnings the day of the shooting that the boy was armed and in a "violent mood."
Abby Zwerner, a first-grade teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, was shot in the hand and chest on Jan. 6 as she sat at a reading table in her classroom.
The 25-year-old teacher spent nearly two weeks in the hospital and required four surgeries.
The shooting sent shock waves through the military shipbuilding community and the country, with many wondering how a child so young could access a gun and shoot his teacher.
The lawsuit names as defendants the Newport News School Board, former Superintendent George Parker III, former Richneck principal Briana Foster-Newton and former Richneck assistant principal Ebony Parker.
Michelle Price, a school board spokesperson, said via email that the board had not yet been served with the lawsuit, adding the school division refers all legal claims information to its insurer.
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Jill Biden wants champions LSU - and Iowa - at White House
WASHINGTON (AP) - First lady Jill Biden said Monday that she wants the defeated Iowa women´s basketball team to be invited to the White House in addition to the national title winner Louisiana State University.
She watched LSU´s 102-85 victory over Iowa from the stands on Sunday night.
Biden, speaking at the Colorado state capital in Denver, praised Iowa's sportsmanship and congratulated both teams on their performance.
"I know we´ll have the champions come to the White House, we always do. So, we hope LSU will come," she said.
"But, you know, I´m going to tell Joe I think Iowa should come, too, because they played such a good game."
The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about whether President Joe Biden would also extend a White House invite to Iowa - and whether it would be a joint visit with LSU or a separate engagement.
Following LSU's victory, Tigers coach Kim Mulkey said she would go to the White House if the team was invited.
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Why Leonardo DiCaprio testified at trial of Fugees rapper
NEW YORK (AP) - Leonardo DiCaprio testified Monday at the trial of former Fugee rapper Prakazrel "Pras" Michel, who is accused of conspiring to funnel money from a Malaysian state fund to Barack Obama´s 2012 reelection campaign. Here is a look at the main characters in the international scandal, and the fund that fueled it.
THE PRAS PROSECUTION
Michel was a founding member of the influential 1990s hip-hop group the Fugees, along with better-known bandmates Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean, who had major 1911 colt custom 38 super bright stainless hits with "Ready or Not" and "Killing Me Softly With His Song." Prosecutors allege Michel conspired with Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho to funnel money from 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Berhad), a Malaysian state fund established in 2009 to promote development, to Barack Obama´s 2012 reelection campaign through straw donors.
Prosecutors have said as much as $100 million went through Michel, a 50-year-old New York native who has maintained his innocence. His trial began Thursday.
THE FUGITIVE
DiCaprio testified in the case because of his ties to Low, the alleged architect of the scandal, who has also been indicted in the US but remained an international fugitive as Michel went to trial.
The Malaysian financier who helped oversee 1MDB used it to bankroll an extravagant and celebrity-centric lifestyle. He is alleged to have steered billions toward property in Beverly Hills and Manhattan, a superyacht, a private jet and many other splashy purchases.
The fund paid for a birthday party for Low where performers included Jamie Foxx, Chris Brown, Ludacris, Busta Ryhmes and Pharrell Williams. Britney Spears jumped out of a cake.
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A duo once more, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon come up for 'Air'
NEW YORK (AP) - While Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were writing "The Last Duel," their first screenplay together since their 1997 breakthrough, "Good Will Hunting," they noticed that something in their winding and usually separate careers had been missing.
"I remember my wife said to me one day: `I haven´t heard you laugh like that in 15 years,´" says Damon. "We came out of that experience going: Why aren´t we doing this more often? And getting into your 50s you just go: If we don´t make it a priority, it´s just not going to happen."
Now, more than 25 years after they set out to make it in Hollywood - so entwined that they once shared a bank account - Affleck and Damon are once again a team.
Affleck directs and Damon stars in "Air," the new film about Nike´s courting of Michael Jordan that opens in theaters Wednesday.
That film, an Apple TV+ original being released theatrically by MGM, is only part of their new collaboration. It´s the first release from their new production company, Artists Equity.
Affleck is the chief executive, Damon is head of content. Part of its mission is to give prominent crew and cast members a piece of profits.
To Affleck, "Air" - in which the then-upstart Nike pursues a sneaker deal with Jordan while his mother (played by Viola Davis) advocates for his worth - represents what they hope to do with their new company.
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