By Mayor Eric Adams Later this week, our children will head back to school for the first day of the new school year. School supplies have been gathered, backpacks are being filled, and alarms will soon be set for the early mornings once again. Whether you’re new to New York City public schools or a…
In Georgia, Donald Trump has entered a not-guilty plea to 13 criminal charges. The indictment accuses the twice impeached and four-time former indicted former president of participating in a plot to rig the state’s 2020 election results.
On Thursday, Aug. 31, a Trump lawyer submitted a waiver of arraignment to a judge in Fulton County. Many of Trump’s 18 co-defendants in the case have also submitted comparable waivers and pleaded not guilty.
“As evidenced by my signature below, I hereby waive formal arraignment and enter my plea of NOT GUILTY to the indictment in this case,” the document that Trump signed states.
According to Brian Tevis, an Atlanta lawyer representing Rudy Giuliani, the former attorney for Trump, most defendants forego arraignment when a judge allows them to do so. Tevis, who also said Giuliani would want to forego the formal arraignment, said, “99% of the time, defendants choose to waive formal arraignment and not to have to appear if the judge allows it.”
The charges against Trump, Giuliani, and the other defendants include racketeering and operating a “criminal enterprise.” In a sweeping indictment, District Attorney Fani Willis said they used several tactics to prevent President Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia’s 2020 election from being correctly certified. Trump faces a federal trial in Washington in March 2024 for interfering with the 2020 presidential election. He also faces possible 2024 trials for alleged crimes in Florida and New York, while Willis has announced her intent to proceed with a trial in Georgia next year. In all the ex-president faces 91 felony counts that could land him in prison for more than 800 years.
“I have discussed the charges in the Indictment and this Waiver of Appearance at Arraignment with my attorney Steven H. Sadow, and I fully understand the nature of the offenses charged and my right to appear at arraignment,” Trump stated in the filing on Thursday.
On Aug. 24, Trump turned himself into authorities at a nearby jail, submitting to a booking photo and fingerprinting. The court set the bond for his release at $200,000.
By Seitu Oronde On Tuesday, August 29th, 2023, photojournalist Seitu Oronde was in Harlem, to see a man’s 14-year dream of owning his own business and establishing a presence was realized. Michael Walker, a seasoned authority in Medicaid and Medicare insurance, had long nurtured the vision of bringing essential healthcare knowledge to Harlem’s residents. Mr. Walker’s office…
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Body camera footage showing the final moments of a pregnant Black woman who was shot and killed by police in an Ohio parking lot last week is expected to be released to the public on Friday.
Ta’Kiya Young, a 21-year-old from Columbus, was pronounced dead shortly after the Aug. 24 shooting outside a grocery store in the suburb of Blendon Township. Her unborn daughter did not survive.
Suspected of shoplifting, police say Young was killed after she accelerated her car toward an officer.
The family’s lawyer, Sean Walton, claims the police department has waited to release the bodycam video to minimize media attention on potentially damaging footage. Walton did not immediately respond to phone messages from The Associated Press seeking additional comment.
Blendon Township Police Chief John Belford said the delay resulted from a small staff trying to process the video and properly redact certain footage in accordance with Ohio law. The family will be able to review the video before it’s made public, he said.
The police chief gave a brief account of the shooting in an Aug. 25 video statement in which he said two officers were helping someone get into a locked car when a supermarket employee told them several people were leaving with stolen items.
Young was among them, according to the employee who pointed her out sitting in her car in the parking lot. She allegedly took bottles of alcohol without paying. One officer went to the driver’s side of Young’s car and told her to stop and get out multiple times, Belford said, while the other officer moved to the front of the vehicle.
Young then put the car in gear and accelerated, Belford said.
“The officer who was directly in the path of the oncoming car fired one shot through the front windshield,” the chief said. “The body camera footage I’ve reviewed also confirms the officer was directly in the path of the car.”
Police have not provided further details on the moments when Young was shot.
Her car continued about 50 feet (15 meters) before stopping on the sidewalk outside the grocery store. Officers broke the car window, pulled her out and began medical assistance with the help of an emergency room doctor who happened to be there, Belford said.
The two officers’ names, ages and races were not immediately released. They are on paid administrative leave while the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation examines the shooting, which is standard in cases of police use of deadly force.
Young was expected to give birth to a daughter in November. She also was the mother of two young sons, ages 6 and 3. An online effort to pay her funeral expenses has raised nearly $7,000.
Family and friends held a private vigil a day after Young was killed, releasing balloons and lighting candles spelling out “RIP Kiya.”
Her grandmother, Nadine Young, described her granddaughter as a family-oriented prankster who was a loving older sister and mother.
“She was so excited to have this little girl,” Nadine Young said at a press conference Wednesday. “She has her two little boys, but she was so fired up to have this girl. She is going to be so missed.”
“I’m a mess because it’s just tragic,” she said, “but it should have never ever ever happened.”
___
Samantha Hendrickson is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
As evolution emerges in almost every aspect of life, living standards have also changed. People rapidly indulge in social media and streaming platforms more extensively. You can earn handsomely sitting comfortably with social media, streaming platforms, and playing games. The online gaming is a game changer in the 21st century, and it has almost power…
