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Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was formally charged Wednesday afternoon with first-degree murder, more than a week after a body was found near his Massachusetts home.Hernandez was also charged with several counts of unlawful possession of firearms. A judge ordered him to be held without bail."He orchestrated the crime from the beginning and took steps to conceal and destroy ...
In a major victory for animal-rights advocates, the National Institutes of Health announced Wednesday it will retire most of its chimpanzees and usher in “a compassionate era” in treatment of man’s closest relative.The NIH will retain, but not breed, up to 50 of the approximately 360 government-owned chimpanzees used for NIH-funded biomedical research. These chimpanzees will be kept in ethological...
Defense lawyers for George Zimmerman on Wednesday questioned the testimony of two of the of the defendant’s former neighbors who said they heard cries for help the night of the shooting, arguing that neither of the women clearly witnessed what transpired during the confrontation that led to Trayvon Martin’s death. Jane Surdyka, who lived in the Twin Lakes neighborhood and placed a 911 call the nig...
The Supreme Court ruling on a California law known as Proposition 8 came down to a legal technicality but has huge practical effect — restoring gay marriage in the nation’s most populous state.The court ruled that proponents of Proposition 8, a ban on gay marriage passed by California voters in 2008, did not have the legal right to defend the law in the federal courts.Chief Justice John Roberts, w...
While same-sex marriage supporters hailed on Wednesday historic Supreme Court decisions that struck down a federal law denying recognition of such unions and left the door open for gays and lesbians to wed once again in California, opponents vowed to keep up their campaign in a pitched state-by-state battle.The justices struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a 1996 law passed by Congress ...
The three young women allegedly held captive for a decade in a Cleveland home where they were raped and tortured want to get the case to court as quickly as possible, their attorneys said on Wednesday, adding that they want “this whole thing behind them.”Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight escaped Castro’s home on May 6 after Berry broke through a front door and screamed to neighbors fo...
Texas is poised to execute its 500th inmate since reinstating the death penalty in 1982, passing a grim milestone in the state that has executed more prisoners than any other state in the country.Kimberly McCarthy, 52, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection at 6:10 p.m. Wednesday, making her one of a small number of female death row inmates who have faced capital punishment.A former c...
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka released the following statement on President Obama’s climate change initiatives that he announced yesterday. We welcome President Obama’s announcement yesterday that he will work closely with all stakeholders, including labor and business leaders, as well as state governments, as he develops an ambitious plan to address climate change, advance new energy-efficient technology, and create good jobs. As President Obama said in the State of the Union address, the best way to address the twin problems of climate change and a weak economy is for Congress to pass comprehensive energy legislation.
