National Roundup

California
Lawsuit over U.S. database tossed
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit accusing a federal information-sharing program of flagging innocent people as potential terrorists.

U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco said Monday that the standard used by the program to identify possible terror activity was legally adopted and not arbitrary.

The program — the National Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative — has state and local law enforcement flag behavior they think reasonably indicates terrorism-related planning or other criminal activity and report it to the FBI or federally funded law enforcement centers for vetting.

The American Civil Liberties Union had sued on behalf of five California men, arguing that the “reasonably indicative” standard was too broad and led to innocent people being identified.

The ACLU of Northern California said it was examining options for an appeal.

Oklahoma
Hog hunting from helicopters may be legalized
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma could soon join Louisiana and Texas in allowing hunters to shoot feral hogs from helicopters.

Aerial gunners are already used to help control feral swine in Oklahoma, but the work can only be done by trained, licensed contractors with support from the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture Food and Forestry, the Tulsa World reported.

Lawmakers are considering a bill to expand the practice to private operations.

Dubbed “the flying pig bill,” the proposal would allow private landowners, companies and pilots to apply for a state license and be responsible for the activity. Hunters on board the aircraft wouldn’t need a license, nor would they have to provide their names to the state.

The change would follow a similar shift a few years ago in neighboring Texas, where shooters can now hire an aircraft for anywhere from $1,000 to $2,000 per hour for a hunt.

Republican Rep. Jeff Coody said over-regulation by Oklahoma’s agriculture department has “put so many administrative rules on their books, it has made it difficult for private individuals to go out and shoot from an aircraft.”

Coody, a co-sponsor of the bill, said the proposal is intended to “to take aerial depredation a little more back to what was originally intended several years ago.”

Oklahoma’s agriculture department says its agents killed more than 11,200 feral hogs last year, mostly by air. Coody said aerial shooting has proven effect in getting rid of the hogs, which he called “a nuisance and a negative to the state.”

He also noted that Federal Aviation Administration rules require licensing before anyone can shoot a firearm from an aircraft.

Pennsylvania
Fewer priest accusers to testify at retrial
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A judge will allow “prior bad act” testimony from perhaps only one other church-abuse victim when a church official is retried on child endangerment charges.

Monsignor William Lynn is being retried after serving nearly three years of a three- to six-year sentence in a child endangerment case.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out the conviction over weeks of testimony from 23 priest abuse victims not directly tied to his case.

This time, prosecutors asked to introduce complaints about nine other priests to try to show that Lynn helped the church cover up the priest-abuse problem.

The judge says one can be admitted, and she will decide on three others before trial.

Lynn is accused of endangering an altar boy who says he was assaulted by a priest in 1998.

Texas
Dallas woman found guilty in 2015 injection death of client
DALLAS (AP) —” A jury has found a Dallas salon worker guilty of murder in the death of woman who was injected in the buttocks with industrial-grade silicone as part of an illegal cosmetic procedure.
Forty-five-year-old Denise “Wee Wee” Ross was found guilty Tuesday after the jury deliberated over the course of two days. She also was found guilty of practicing medicine without a license.
The trial now moves to the punishment phase and Ross faces up to life in prison.
Prosecutors say Ross injected the silicone into the buttocks of Wykesha Reid to give her what the salon called the “Wee Wee Booty.” Reid, 34, was found dead at the salon in 2015.
The Dallas Morning News reports that silicone from the injection traveled through Reid’s heart and into her lungs.

Georgia
Judge dismisses suit accusing Glock founder of racketeering
ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge in Atlanta has dismissed a lawsuit accusing the founder of the company that makes Glock pistols of conspiring to steal millions from his ex-wife.

Helga Glock, who was also her ex-husband’s business partner for decades, filed the lawsuit in October 2014.

It accused Gaston Glock and others of participating in a decades-long, worldwide racketeering scheme to take money from Helga Glock through various criminal methods, including improper royalty payments, laundering money through fraudulent billing companies and sham lease and loan agreements.

The judge’s order last week says Helga Glock, an Austrian citizen and resident, didn’t suffer harm to her business or property in the U.S., meaning she can’t bring a racketeering claim here.

Helga Glock’s attorney says he plans to appeal.

Wisconsin
Court upholds conviction cleared with DNA evidence
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin appeals court says a man convicted of sexual assault was properly granted a new trial based on newly discovered DNA evidence.

In 1995, Daniel Scheidell of Racine County was convicted of attempted first-degree sexual assault and armed burglary of his neighbor. Almost two decades later, the Wisconsin Innocence Project got him a new trial based on DNA evidence from the sexual assault kit that belonged to a Racine man serving time for a similar crime that occurred a few years later. A circuit court cleared Scheidell’s conviction.

The 2nd District Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the circuit court properly exercised its discretion in granting another trial after obtaining convincing new evidence.

Scheidell’s attorney did not immediately return a message.