Kentucky
Man charged in the fatal shooting of state trooper was wanted on a parole violation
A Tennessee man with a lengthy criminal history was ordered held without bail Tuesday after being charged in the fatal shooting of a Kentucky state trooper, officials said.
Emonnie Dion Branch was arrested and charged in Louisville on Monday night in the killing of Trooper Hayden Phillips, who was shot when he pulled a vehicle over on Interstate 65 in Warren County, Col. Phillip Burnett Jr., commissioner of the Kentucky State Police, said during a news conference.
Branch, 51, of Portland, Tennessee, fled in his vehicle and officers arrested him in Jefferson County, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) from the scene of the shooting, police said.
Authorities booked Branch into the Warren County Detention Center in Bowling Green early Tuesday.
Branch was charged with murder of a first responder. If convicted he could face the death penalty or life imprisonment. During an arraignment hearing Tuesday, a judge denied him bail.
A preliminary hearing to discuss the extradition process was scheduled for Friday.
Prosecutors said Branch is a repeat offender, and that he is named on an arrest warrant issued in Sumner County, Tennessee, in August for violating the terms of his probation. He was sentenced to probation last year after being convicted of fraud and impersonation. Authorities have not described the probation violation.
Branch wore an orange jail uniform and sat in a wheelchair in the courtroom packed with members of Phillips’ family and rows of law enforcement officers.
A public defender appointed for Branch attended the arraignment.
Trooper Katan Parker, a state police spokesperson in Bowling Green, said Tuesday that authorities are not sure why Phillips pulled Branch over. At a news conference Monday, Kyle Bumgarner, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, described it as a “routine traffic stop” and said officials responded within minutes of the shooting.
Phillips, who would have turned 29 on Wednesday, had been with the agency for three years and was based in Bowling Green in south-central Kentucky. He was a husband and father of three.
Washington
DOJ files complaint against judges over immigration enforcement surge comments
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Justice filed a complaint Wednesday against federal judges in Minnesota over their remarks to the media related to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement surge.
The complaint escalates the department’s battle with the federal judiciary, which has halted administration priorities, dismissed high-profile prosecutions and accused government lawyers in some cases of failing to comply with court orders.
The department is demanding that the judges recuse themselves from all criminal or civil cases involving the Department of Homeland Security, Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters, because of what he described as “obvious bias they have shown” in recent remarks to The New York Times.
At issue is a September article in which seven federal judges in Minnesota — nominated by Democrats and Republican presidents — spoke on the record about their experience dealing with a flood of cases during last winter’s immigration crackdown that led to thousands of arrests.
The judge at the center of the story, Patrick Schiltz, accused the government in January of failing to comply with nearly 100 court orders. He said in a ruling that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a part of DHS, “is not a law unto itself.”
Schiltz, who was nominated by Republican President George W. Bush and served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, told the newspaper that what happened in Minnesota’s federal court last winter “created a grave threat to the rule of law.”
In a statement Wednesday, Schiltz said he was “acting well within the ethical rules that apply to federal judges in speaking to The New York Times.”
“Indeed, in February of this year, the Committee on Codes of Conduct issued an advisory opinion to emphasize that federal judges” may speak or write “on core judiciary matters such as advocacy for the rule of law and judicial independence,’” Schiltz said.
“That is exactly what I did.”
The complaint was filed with the chief judge of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees federal judges in Minnesota.
The Republican administration has railed against what it describes as “activist judges” who officials say are intent on thwarting Trump’s agenda. Yet some of the most critical and unfavorable court rulings have come from judges nominated by Trump and other Republican presidents.
South Dakota
Kristi Noem files for divorce from her husband
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has filed for divorce from her husband of 34 years.
Noem, who was tasked with leading President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown from January 2025 to March 2026 and previously served as South Dakota’s governor, is seeking a divorce from Bryon Noem in their home state. The two married in May 1992 and have three children.
The filing, made in April but posted online on Monday, comes after questions arose earlier this year about the nature of Kristi Noem’s relationship with a top adviser. The complaint, filed in Hamlin County, notes “irreconcilable differences” as grounds for the divorce.
A day before Noem was ousted from her post in Trump’s cabinet, members of Congress questioned her about an alleged extramarital affair with Corey Lewandowski, a special government employee and one of the secretary’s lead advisers. He was Trump’s first campaign manager in 2016 and appeared to play an outsized role in Noem’s department, even though his position was supposed to have a limit on days worked.
Noem denied the allegations that they were having an affair, dismissing them as “tabloid garbage.”
Once a close ally to Trump, Noem became a liability for the Republican president as questions arose over her conduct following the shooting deaths of two protesters in Minneapolis at the hands of immigration officers. Noem characterized both Renee Good and Alex Pretti as aggressors, contradicting videos from the scene and descriptions of their deaths from bystanders. She also faced criticism from fellow Republicans for her spending at her department.
Trump nominated Markwayne Mullin, then a U.S. senator from Oklahoma, in Noem’s place and made her a special envoy for The Shield of the Americas, a new security initiative focused on the Western Hemisphere.
Man charged in the fatal shooting of state trooper was wanted on a parole violation
A Tennessee man with a lengthy criminal history was ordered held without bail Tuesday after being charged in the fatal shooting of a Kentucky state trooper, officials said.
Emonnie Dion Branch was arrested and charged in Louisville on Monday night in the killing of Trooper Hayden Phillips, who was shot when he pulled a vehicle over on Interstate 65 in Warren County, Col. Phillip Burnett Jr., commissioner of the Kentucky State Police, said during a news conference.
Branch, 51, of Portland, Tennessee, fled in his vehicle and officers arrested him in Jefferson County, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) from the scene of the shooting, police said.
Authorities booked Branch into the Warren County Detention Center in Bowling Green early Tuesday.
Branch was charged with murder of a first responder. If convicted he could face the death penalty or life imprisonment. During an arraignment hearing Tuesday, a judge denied him bail.
A preliminary hearing to discuss the extradition process was scheduled for Friday.
Prosecutors said Branch is a repeat offender, and that he is named on an arrest warrant issued in Sumner County, Tennessee, in August for violating the terms of his probation. He was sentenced to probation last year after being convicted of fraud and impersonation. Authorities have not described the probation violation.
Branch wore an orange jail uniform and sat in a wheelchair in the courtroom packed with members of Phillips’ family and rows of law enforcement officers.
A public defender appointed for Branch attended the arraignment.
Trooper Katan Parker, a state police spokesperson in Bowling Green, said Tuesday that authorities are not sure why Phillips pulled Branch over. At a news conference Monday, Kyle Bumgarner, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, described it as a “routine traffic stop” and said officials responded within minutes of the shooting.
Phillips, who would have turned 29 on Wednesday, had been with the agency for three years and was based in Bowling Green in south-central Kentucky. He was a husband and father of three.
Washington
DOJ files complaint against judges over immigration enforcement surge comments
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Justice filed a complaint Wednesday against federal judges in Minnesota over their remarks to the media related to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement surge.
The complaint escalates the department’s battle with the federal judiciary, which has halted administration priorities, dismissed high-profile prosecutions and accused government lawyers in some cases of failing to comply with court orders.
The department is demanding that the judges recuse themselves from all criminal or civil cases involving the Department of Homeland Security, Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters, because of what he described as “obvious bias they have shown” in recent remarks to The New York Times.
At issue is a September article in which seven federal judges in Minnesota — nominated by Democrats and Republican presidents — spoke on the record about their experience dealing with a flood of cases during last winter’s immigration crackdown that led to thousands of arrests.
The judge at the center of the story, Patrick Schiltz, accused the government in January of failing to comply with nearly 100 court orders. He said in a ruling that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a part of DHS, “is not a law unto itself.”
Schiltz, who was nominated by Republican President George W. Bush and served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, told the newspaper that what happened in Minnesota’s federal court last winter “created a grave threat to the rule of law.”
In a statement Wednesday, Schiltz said he was “acting well within the ethical rules that apply to federal judges in speaking to The New York Times.”
“Indeed, in February of this year, the Committee on Codes of Conduct issued an advisory opinion to emphasize that federal judges” may speak or write “on core judiciary matters such as advocacy for the rule of law and judicial independence,’” Schiltz said.
“That is exactly what I did.”
The complaint was filed with the chief judge of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees federal judges in Minnesota.
The Republican administration has railed against what it describes as “activist judges” who officials say are intent on thwarting Trump’s agenda. Yet some of the most critical and unfavorable court rulings have come from judges nominated by Trump and other Republican presidents.
South Dakota
Kristi Noem files for divorce from her husband
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has filed for divorce from her husband of 34 years.
Noem, who was tasked with leading President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown from January 2025 to March 2026 and previously served as South Dakota’s governor, is seeking a divorce from Bryon Noem in their home state. The two married in May 1992 and have three children.
The filing, made in April but posted online on Monday, comes after questions arose earlier this year about the nature of Kristi Noem’s relationship with a top adviser. The complaint, filed in Hamlin County, notes “irreconcilable differences” as grounds for the divorce.
A day before Noem was ousted from her post in Trump’s cabinet, members of Congress questioned her about an alleged extramarital affair with Corey Lewandowski, a special government employee and one of the secretary’s lead advisers. He was Trump’s first campaign manager in 2016 and appeared to play an outsized role in Noem’s department, even though his position was supposed to have a limit on days worked.
Noem denied the allegations that they were having an affair, dismissing them as “tabloid garbage.”
Once a close ally to Trump, Noem became a liability for the Republican president as questions arose over her conduct following the shooting deaths of two protesters in Minneapolis at the hands of immigration officers. Noem characterized both Renee Good and Alex Pretti as aggressors, contradicting videos from the scene and descriptions of their deaths from bystanders. She also faced criticism from fellow Republicans for her spending at her department.
Trump nominated Markwayne Mullin, then a U.S. senator from Oklahoma, in Noem’s place and made her a special envoy for The Shield of the Americas, a new security initiative focused on the Western Hemisphere.
