Florida
Trump seeks quick deposition of Murdoch in Wall Street Journal lawsuit over Epstein story
President Donald Trump is asking a federal court in Florida to force Rupert Murdoch to give a deposition for the president’s lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal within 15 days, citing the media mogul’s age and physical condition.
Trump sued the Journal, owned by Murdoch, is U.S. District Court in southern Florida on July 18 for its story reporting on the Republican president’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and alleged child sex trafficker who died in a New York jail in 2019 before trial.
The president’s motion to the court on Monday noted Murdoch is 94 years old, is believed to have suffered several health scares in recent years and is presumed to live in New York.
“Taken together, these factors weigh heavily in determining that Murdoch would be unavailable for in-person testimony at trial,” Trump’s request to the court said.
A spokesman for Murdoch’s News Corp. did not immediately return a request for comment. Trump’s motion said that, in a telephone conversation, Murdoch’s lawyer indicated he would oppose the effort.
Washington
Judge blocks Trump’s efforts to defund Planned Parenthood
A federal judge on Monday ruled Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide must continue to be reimbursed for Medicaid funding as the nation’s largest abortion provider fights President Donald Trump’s administration over efforts to defund the organization in his signature tax legislation.
The new order replaces a previous edict handed down by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston last week. Talwani initially granted a preliminary injunction specifically blocking the government from cutting Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood members that didn’t provide abortion care or didn’t meet a threshold of at least $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in a given year.
“Patients are likely to suffer adverse health consequences where care is disrupted or unavailable,” Talwani wrote in her Monday order. “In particular, restricting Members’ ability to provide healthcare services threatens an increase in unintended pregnancies and attendant complications because of reduced access to effective contraceptives, and an increase in undiagnosed and untreated STIs.”
A provision in Trump’s tax bill instructed the federal government to end Medicaid payments for one year to abortion providers that received more than $800,000 from Medicaid in 2023, even to those like Planned Parenthood that also offer medical services like contraception, pregnancy tests and STD testing.
Although Planned Parenthood is not specifically named in the statute, which went into effect July 4, the organization’s leaders say it was meant to affect their nearly 600 centers in 48 states. However, a major medical provider in Maine and likely others have also been hit.
In her Monday order, Talwani said that the court was “not enjoining the federal government from regulating abortion and is not directing the federal government to fund elective abortions or any healthcare service not otherwise eligible for Medicaid coverage.” Instead, Talwani said that her decision would block the federal government from excluding groups like Planned Parenthood from Medicaid reimbursements when they have demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success in their legal challenge.
In its lawsuit, Planned Parenthood had argued that they would be at risk of closing nearly 200 clinics in 24 states if they are cut off from Medicaid funds. They estimated this would result in more than 1 million patients losing care.
“We’re suing the Trump administration over this targeted attack on Planned Parenthood health centers and the patients who rely on them for care,” said Planned Parenthood’s president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson in a statement on Monday.
“This case is about making sure that patients who use Medicaid as their insurance to get birth control, cancer screenings, and STI testing and treatment can continue to do so at their local Planned Parenthood health center, and we will make that clear in court.”
The lawsuit was filed earlier this month against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its member organizations in Massachusetts and Utah.
A health department spokesperson reiterated Monday that the agency strongly disagreed with the judge’s order, repeating previous arguments that her decision “undermines state flexibility and disregards longstanding concerns about accountability.”
“States should not be forced to fund organizations that have chosen political advocacy over patient care,” said the department’s communication director, Andrew Nixon, in an email.
Medicaid is a government health care program that serves millions of low-income and disabled Americans. Nearly half of Planned Parenthood’s patients rely on Medicaid.
Wisconsin
Women’s prison inmate sentenced to life for beating cellmate to death
FOND DU LAC, Wis. (AP) — An inmate at Wisconsin’s women’s prison accused of brutally beating her cellmate to death will spend the rest of her life behind bars.
Fond du Lac County Circuit Judge Tricia Walker sentenced 29-year-old Taylor Sanchez to life without parole Monday in connection with 68-year-old Cindy Schulz-Juedes’ death in 2023 at Taycheedah Correctional Institution.
According to a criminal complaint, staff at Taycheedah Correctional Institution in Fond du Lac discovered Schulz-Juedes’ body in the cell she shared with Sanchez in July 2023. Sanchez later called her mother and told her that she beat Schulz-Juedes to death with her bare hands because she had stopped taking her medication, was hearing voices and thought Schulz-Juedes had cleaned a toilet with Sanchez’s toothbrush, the complaint says.
Sanchez initially pleaded not guilty due to insanity. Online court records show she changed the plea in June to no contest, a legal construct in which defendants choose not to fight the charges against them but don’t admit guilt. The plea results in a conviction the same as if the defendant had pleaded guilty or been found guilty by a jury.
Sanchez was serving a two-year sentence for battery at the time of the alleged attack. Schulz-Juedes was serving a life sentence for killing her husband in 2021.
Sanchez’s attorney, public defender Michael Queensland, didn’t return a message Monday.
Ohio
Ex-officer who mistook a Black man’s keys and phone for a gun gets 15 years to life for murder
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A former Ohio police officer convicted of murder in the shooting of Andre Hill, a Black man who was holding a cellphone and keys when he was killed, was given a mandatory sentence Monday of 15 years to life.
Former Columbus officer Adam Coy shot Hill four times in a garage in December 2020, as the country reckoned with a series of police killings of Black men, women and children. He told jurors that he feared for his life because he thought Hill was holding a silver revolver.
Coy, who is being treated for Hodgkin lymphoma, told the court Monday he plans to appeal the verdict.
“I feel my actions were justified,” Coy said. “I reacted the same way I had in hundreds of training scenarios. I drew and fired my weapon to stop a threat, protect myself and my partner.”
Prosecutors said Hill followed police commands and was never a threat to Coy.
In victim impact statements Monday, Hill’s sisters and ex-wife described the 47-year-old as a gentle man who had never met a stranger. His grandchildren called him “Big Daddy.”
Police body camera footage showed Hill coming out of the garage of a friend’s house holding up a cellphone in his left hand, his right hand not visible, seconds before he was fatally shot. Almost 10 minutes passed before officers at the scene rendered aid.
Coy, who was fired afterward, had a lengthy history of citizen complaints, although most were declared unfounded. Weeks later, the mayor forced out the police chief after a series of fatal police shootings of Black people.
Columbus later reached a $10 million settlement with Hill’s family, and the city passed a law requiring police to give immediate medical attention to injured suspects.
Illinois
Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit against Chicago ‘sanctuary’ laws
CHICAGO (AP) — A judge in Illinois dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit Friday that sought to disrupt limits Chicago imposes on cooperation between federal immigration agents and local police.
The lawsuit, filed in February, alleged that so-called sanctuary laws in the nation’s third-largest city “thwart” federal efforts to enforce immigration laws.
It argued that local laws run counter to federal laws by restricting “local governments from sharing immigration information with federal law enforcement officials” and preventing immigration agents from identifying “individuals who may be subject to removal.”
Judge Lindsay Jenkins of the Northern District of Illinois granted the defendants’ motion for dismissal.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said he was pleased with the decision and the city is safer when police focus on the needs of Chicagoans.
“This ruling affirms what we have long known: that Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance is lawful and supports public safety. The City cannot be compelled to cooperate with the Trump Administration’s reckless and inhumane immigration agenda,” he said in a statement.
Gov. JB Pritzker welcomed the ruling, saying in a social media post, “Illinois just beat the Trump Administration in federal court.”
The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security and did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
The administration has filed a series of lawsuits targeting state or city policies seen as interfering with immigration enforcement, including those in Los Angeles, New York City, Denver and Rochester, New York. It sued four New Jersey cities in May.
Heavily Democratic Chicago has been a sanctuary city for decades and has beefed up its laws several times, including during Trump’s first term in 2017.
That same year, then-Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, signed more statewide sanctuary protections into law, putting him at odds with his party.
There is no official definition for sanctuary policies or sanctuary cities. The terms generally describe limits on local cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE enforces U.S. immigration laws nationwide but sometimes seeks state and local help.
California
Pilot arrested on child sex abuse material charges
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A pilot was arrested aboard a Delta Air Lines flight and federal agents took him into custody from the cockpit after the plane landed at San Francisco International Airport.
The pilot, whose identity wasn’t immediately released, was arrested on charges relating to child sexual abuse material, an official with the Department of Homeland Security said Monday.
Passengers aboard the flight from Minneapolis to San Francisco on Saturday posted video online showing federal agents walking through the aisle of the plane.
Trump seeks quick deposition of Murdoch in Wall Street Journal lawsuit over Epstein story
President Donald Trump is asking a federal court in Florida to force Rupert Murdoch to give a deposition for the president’s lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal within 15 days, citing the media mogul’s age and physical condition.
Trump sued the Journal, owned by Murdoch, is U.S. District Court in southern Florida on July 18 for its story reporting on the Republican president’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and alleged child sex trafficker who died in a New York jail in 2019 before trial.
The president’s motion to the court on Monday noted Murdoch is 94 years old, is believed to have suffered several health scares in recent years and is presumed to live in New York.
“Taken together, these factors weigh heavily in determining that Murdoch would be unavailable for in-person testimony at trial,” Trump’s request to the court said.
A spokesman for Murdoch’s News Corp. did not immediately return a request for comment. Trump’s motion said that, in a telephone conversation, Murdoch’s lawyer indicated he would oppose the effort.
Washington
Judge blocks Trump’s efforts to defund Planned Parenthood
A federal judge on Monday ruled Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide must continue to be reimbursed for Medicaid funding as the nation’s largest abortion provider fights President Donald Trump’s administration over efforts to defund the organization in his signature tax legislation.
The new order replaces a previous edict handed down by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston last week. Talwani initially granted a preliminary injunction specifically blocking the government from cutting Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood members that didn’t provide abortion care or didn’t meet a threshold of at least $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in a given year.
“Patients are likely to suffer adverse health consequences where care is disrupted or unavailable,” Talwani wrote in her Monday order. “In particular, restricting Members’ ability to provide healthcare services threatens an increase in unintended pregnancies and attendant complications because of reduced access to effective contraceptives, and an increase in undiagnosed and untreated STIs.”
A provision in Trump’s tax bill instructed the federal government to end Medicaid payments for one year to abortion providers that received more than $800,000 from Medicaid in 2023, even to those like Planned Parenthood that also offer medical services like contraception, pregnancy tests and STD testing.
Although Planned Parenthood is not specifically named in the statute, which went into effect July 4, the organization’s leaders say it was meant to affect their nearly 600 centers in 48 states. However, a major medical provider in Maine and likely others have also been hit.
In her Monday order, Talwani said that the court was “not enjoining the federal government from regulating abortion and is not directing the federal government to fund elective abortions or any healthcare service not otherwise eligible for Medicaid coverage.” Instead, Talwani said that her decision would block the federal government from excluding groups like Planned Parenthood from Medicaid reimbursements when they have demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success in their legal challenge.
In its lawsuit, Planned Parenthood had argued that they would be at risk of closing nearly 200 clinics in 24 states if they are cut off from Medicaid funds. They estimated this would result in more than 1 million patients losing care.
“We’re suing the Trump administration over this targeted attack on Planned Parenthood health centers and the patients who rely on them for care,” said Planned Parenthood’s president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson in a statement on Monday.
“This case is about making sure that patients who use Medicaid as their insurance to get birth control, cancer screenings, and STI testing and treatment can continue to do so at their local Planned Parenthood health center, and we will make that clear in court.”
The lawsuit was filed earlier this month against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its member organizations in Massachusetts and Utah.
A health department spokesperson reiterated Monday that the agency strongly disagreed with the judge’s order, repeating previous arguments that her decision “undermines state flexibility and disregards longstanding concerns about accountability.”
“States should not be forced to fund organizations that have chosen political advocacy over patient care,” said the department’s communication director, Andrew Nixon, in an email.
Medicaid is a government health care program that serves millions of low-income and disabled Americans. Nearly half of Planned Parenthood’s patients rely on Medicaid.
Wisconsin
Women’s prison inmate sentenced to life for beating cellmate to death
FOND DU LAC, Wis. (AP) — An inmate at Wisconsin’s women’s prison accused of brutally beating her cellmate to death will spend the rest of her life behind bars.
Fond du Lac County Circuit Judge Tricia Walker sentenced 29-year-old Taylor Sanchez to life without parole Monday in connection with 68-year-old Cindy Schulz-Juedes’ death in 2023 at Taycheedah Correctional Institution.
According to a criminal complaint, staff at Taycheedah Correctional Institution in Fond du Lac discovered Schulz-Juedes’ body in the cell she shared with Sanchez in July 2023. Sanchez later called her mother and told her that she beat Schulz-Juedes to death with her bare hands because she had stopped taking her medication, was hearing voices and thought Schulz-Juedes had cleaned a toilet with Sanchez’s toothbrush, the complaint says.
Sanchez initially pleaded not guilty due to insanity. Online court records show she changed the plea in June to no contest, a legal construct in which defendants choose not to fight the charges against them but don’t admit guilt. The plea results in a conviction the same as if the defendant had pleaded guilty or been found guilty by a jury.
Sanchez was serving a two-year sentence for battery at the time of the alleged attack. Schulz-Juedes was serving a life sentence for killing her husband in 2021.
Sanchez’s attorney, public defender Michael Queensland, didn’t return a message Monday.
Ohio
Ex-officer who mistook a Black man’s keys and phone for a gun gets 15 years to life for murder
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A former Ohio police officer convicted of murder in the shooting of Andre Hill, a Black man who was holding a cellphone and keys when he was killed, was given a mandatory sentence Monday of 15 years to life.
Former Columbus officer Adam Coy shot Hill four times in a garage in December 2020, as the country reckoned with a series of police killings of Black men, women and children. He told jurors that he feared for his life because he thought Hill was holding a silver revolver.
Coy, who is being treated for Hodgkin lymphoma, told the court Monday he plans to appeal the verdict.
“I feel my actions were justified,” Coy said. “I reacted the same way I had in hundreds of training scenarios. I drew and fired my weapon to stop a threat, protect myself and my partner.”
Prosecutors said Hill followed police commands and was never a threat to Coy.
In victim impact statements Monday, Hill’s sisters and ex-wife described the 47-year-old as a gentle man who had never met a stranger. His grandchildren called him “Big Daddy.”
Police body camera footage showed Hill coming out of the garage of a friend’s house holding up a cellphone in his left hand, his right hand not visible, seconds before he was fatally shot. Almost 10 minutes passed before officers at the scene rendered aid.
Coy, who was fired afterward, had a lengthy history of citizen complaints, although most were declared unfounded. Weeks later, the mayor forced out the police chief after a series of fatal police shootings of Black people.
Columbus later reached a $10 million settlement with Hill’s family, and the city passed a law requiring police to give immediate medical attention to injured suspects.
Illinois
Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit against Chicago ‘sanctuary’ laws
CHICAGO (AP) — A judge in Illinois dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit Friday that sought to disrupt limits Chicago imposes on cooperation between federal immigration agents and local police.
The lawsuit, filed in February, alleged that so-called sanctuary laws in the nation’s third-largest city “thwart” federal efforts to enforce immigration laws.
It argued that local laws run counter to federal laws by restricting “local governments from sharing immigration information with federal law enforcement officials” and preventing immigration agents from identifying “individuals who may be subject to removal.”
Judge Lindsay Jenkins of the Northern District of Illinois granted the defendants’ motion for dismissal.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said he was pleased with the decision and the city is safer when police focus on the needs of Chicagoans.
“This ruling affirms what we have long known: that Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance is lawful and supports public safety. The City cannot be compelled to cooperate with the Trump Administration’s reckless and inhumane immigration agenda,” he said in a statement.
Gov. JB Pritzker welcomed the ruling, saying in a social media post, “Illinois just beat the Trump Administration in federal court.”
The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security and did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
The administration has filed a series of lawsuits targeting state or city policies seen as interfering with immigration enforcement, including those in Los Angeles, New York City, Denver and Rochester, New York. It sued four New Jersey cities in May.
Heavily Democratic Chicago has been a sanctuary city for decades and has beefed up its laws several times, including during Trump’s first term in 2017.
That same year, then-Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, signed more statewide sanctuary protections into law, putting him at odds with his party.
There is no official definition for sanctuary policies or sanctuary cities. The terms generally describe limits on local cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE enforces U.S. immigration laws nationwide but sometimes seeks state and local help.
California
Pilot arrested on child sex abuse material charges
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A pilot was arrested aboard a Delta Air Lines flight and federal agents took him into custody from the cockpit after the plane landed at San Francisco International Airport.
The pilot, whose identity wasn’t immediately released, was arrested on charges relating to child sexual abuse material, an official with the Department of Homeland Security said Monday.
Passengers aboard the flight from Minneapolis to San Francisco on Saturday posted video online showing federal agents walking through the aisle of the plane.
