TYLER, Texas â Lawsuits and claims from the Phillips family related to their criminal cases could cost Smith County an estimated $300,000. County officials said this in a commissionerâs court meeting on Tuesday. According to our news partner KETK, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Wilson provided the briefing on pending or contemplated litigation against the county involving Karen, Derek and Lance Phillips, as well as family friend Cody Voss.
Smith County Clerk Karen Phillips originally filed her lawsuit against Smith County in June 2023. She is seeking $10 million in damages in connection to her March 2023 arrest. The lawsuit was paused by the court pending the outcome of her criminal case, and Wilson said that âas a result of the guilty finding by the jury I would anticipate that this claim will no longer go forward.â Continue reading Phillips criminal case lawsuits could cost Smith County possibly $300K
Tires isn't even on the showroom floor yet, but Netflix has ordered another set.
The show starring and co-created by stand-up comedian and actor Shane Gillis officially premieres on May 23, but execs at the streaming giant have apparently kicked the tires and found it to be ready to roll on to a sophomore season.
Gillis' co-creator Steven Gerben plays Will, "the nervous and unqualified heir to an auto repair chain" who "attempts to turn his father's business around despite constant torture from his cousin and now employee," played by Gillis.
TYLER â With Memorial Day weekend is approaching, Texas launched itâs annual âClick It or Ticketâ seatbelt safety campaign on Monday. According to our news partner KETK, the Texas Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Safety held press conference in front of a âClick it or Ticketâ monster truck and was attended attended by many in the East Texas law enforcement community.
Heather Singleton, a DPS traffic safety specialist said at the launch event, âA lot of people donât really understand the severity of not wearing a seatbelt. And thatâs why we have these campaigns that include education, along with the enforcement officers who are out doing this enforcement beginning today. Theyâre going to be educating drivers that they speak with as well.â Continue reading âClick It or Ticketâ seatbelt safety campaign begins
(WASHINGTON) -- Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday criticized Donald Trump for the since-deleted video reposted to his social media site Truth Social referencing a "Unified Reich" if reelected, calling it "appalling," but "unsurprising" coming from the former president.
"Just yesterday, the former president of the United States, who praises dictators, who said there were 'very fine people on both sides' in Charlottesville -- let's not forget -- took to social media and highlighted language from Nazi Germany," Harris said as she addressed a convention of service employees in Philadelphia.
"This kind of rhetoric is unsurprising coming from the former president and it is appalling and we got to tell him who we are," the vice president said. "And once again, it shows our freedoms and our very democracy are at stake."
The phrase "Unified Reich" appeared in a social media video, the Trump campaign said was reposted by a staffer, that announced the former president's hypothetical victory in the 2024 election. Specifically, the words were part of a hypothetical news headline.
Under a big headline that said, "WHAT'S NEXT FOR AMERICA?" there was a smaller headline that appeared to read: "INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED DRIVEN BY THE CREATION OF A UNIFIED REICH."
The video was online for more than 18 hours before it was deleted on Tuesday. The Trump campaign told ABC News in a statement that it was a random online video reposted by a staffer who did not see the word.
The Biden-Harris campaign denounced the post as part of a "pattern of his praise for dictators and echoing antisemitic tropes."
Trump has denied ever reading "Mein Kampf" and his campaign previously said comparisons made by Trump's critics to Hitler or Mussolini are "ridiculous."
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters President Joe Biden was "clearly tracking this" and indicated he would address the issue later Tuesday while campaigning in Boston.
"What I want to say more broadly is it is abhorrent, sickening and disgraceful for anyone to promote content associated with Germany's Nazi government under Adolf Hitler," Jean-Pierre said.
Biden himself, while leaving a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in New Hampshire where is speaking on the PACT Act, which expands health care and benefits to veterans exposed to toxic burn pits, was asked by reporters for his reaction to the video but said, "it would take too long."
Republican lawmakers dodge the issue
Senate Republicans on Tuesday largely avoided commenting on the video.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., was one of few Senate Republicans who was outrightly critical of the post. He said he had not seen the video but had heard about it.
"If that's the case, it is a very serious mistake to make. It does not send the right message about what the rest of us believe in terms of freedom and I would hope that it would have been either an oversight or it would be corrected," Rounds told ABC News. "To use that term in this day and age is simply inappropriate and it's got to be corrected."
But most Republicans I spoke to today dodged commenting on it. Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump's most ardent supporters, deflected entirely when asked to react to the video.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump's most ardent supporters, deflected entirely when asked to react to the video.
"I don't know, see I don't follow -- in case you haven't noticed, the world is falling apart. Have you all not noticed that?" Graham said before walking away from press cameras.
Others said they hadn't seen it or weren't aware of its contents.
"I don't know anything about that," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told ABC News.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, an outspoken critic of Trump, said he hasn't seen the video.
Democrats call it 'petrifying'
Senate Democrats, however, were quick to admonish the video.
Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said it's "hard to believe" these things are accidental, as he referenced several other comments from Trump over the last several years that he said mirrored Nazism.
"Is this just an accident? Does he have some passion for that era? I can't understand why it has nothing to do with America and its future," Durbin told ABC News.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., called the comments "petrifying" and said blaming the post on a campaign staffer is not enough.
"Campaign staffers speak for the individual whose campaign it is and he has to completely denounce and disown it or he in fact is responsible for it. It is part and parcel of the Trump appeal to the White Supremacist antisemitism Islamophobia in this country that is rising now not just in speech but also in incidence of hate crime," Blumenthal said.
ABC News' Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
The investigation into the death of Friends star Matthew Perry remains ongoing, especially in respect to where he acquired the ketamine that led to his death in October, according to local and federal law enforcement officials.
Perry died at his home from the acute effects of ketamine, according to the autopsy report released in December by the Los Angeles County medical examiner.
Detectives have been interviewing people who could have information about where the drugs came from, sources told ABC News, but they do not have information to narrow in on a source. No arrests have been made.
"Based on the Medical Examiner's findings, the Los Angeles Police Department, with the assistance of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the United States Postal Inspection Service, has continued its investigation into the circumstances of Mr. Perryâs death," the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement.
The DEA said it had no comment.
The actor, most well known for his role as Chandler Bing on Friends, died on October 28, 2023, at the age of 54. In his bestselling 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry explored his decadeslong struggle with addiction in sometimes graphic detail.
In a statement the day after responding to his home, the LAPD said Perry "was discovered by a witness unresponsive in his jacuzzi." There were no signs of foul play at the scene, according to law enforcement officials.
Perry was reported to have been receiving ketamine infusions for depression and anxiety, according to the autopsy report, but the medical examiner wrote the ketamine in his system at the time of his death could not have been from that infusion therapy because ketamineâs half-life is three to four hours or less. His method of intake was listed as unknown.
(TOPEKA, Kan.) -- Kansas physicians are legally challenging a new state law that would require them to ask and publicly report patients' reasons for seeking abortion care as well as other personal information.
A lawsuit claims the law "directly interferes with Kansans' bodily autonomy and their fundamental right to make their own decisions about health care," according the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing the physicians.
The new law is lawmakers' latest attempt to regulate the procedure after Kansas voters, defying expectations, voted to protect abortion rights by upholding a state constitutional right to abortion -- with an overwhelming majority -- in a 2022 ballot initiative.
Abortion care is allowed in Kansas up to 22 weeks of pregnancy.
The new legal challenge has been added to an ongoing lawsuit against the state attorney general and district attorneys over other abortion restrictions in the state, including state-mandated abortion counseling they claim is medically inaccurate; a law requiring physicians tell patients the "false and dangerous" claim that it is possible to reverse medication abortions; and a state-required 24-hour waiting period before patients can access care, according to the CRR.
Anti-abortion lawmakers in the state House and Senate bypassed a veto from Gov. Laura Kelly, advancing House Bill 2749 into law without her signature.
"There is no valid medical reason to force a woman to disclose to the legislature if they have been a victim of abuse, rape, or incest prior to obtaining an abortion. There is no valid medical reason to force a woman to disclose to the legislature why she is seeking an abortion," Kelly said in a letter to the legislature.
"I refuse to sign legislation that goes against the will of the majority of Kansans who spoke loudly on Aug. 2, 2022: Kansans don't want politicians involved in their private medical decisions," Kelly wrote.
Kansas Right to Life, an anti-abortion group that requested the legislation be introduced, and the state attorney general did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.
What's in the new law?
The law requires physicians to collect personal information about patients receiving abortion care and provide them to the state in a public report twice a year.
While the report of abortions will not include the names of patients who sought or received the care, it requires other personal information including their age, marital status, state or country of residence, race and highest level of education.
Under the new law, physicians are required to ask patients seeking abortion care what the most important factor was in determining why they sought care, except in cases of medical emergencies.
A list of factors for physicians to read patients include: "Having a baby would interfere with the patient's education, employment or career; the patient cannot provide for the child; the patient already has enough, or too many, children; the patient's husband or partner is abusive to such patient or such patient's children," according to the law.
Other reasons include rape, incest, risk to the health of the mother and that the child would have a disability.
The law requires "the reporting of the reasons for each abortion performed at a medical care facility or by a healthcare provider in the state," according to the law.
Medical facilities will have to keep written records of all "lawfully terminated" pregnancies and submit a written report twice a year to the secretary of health and environment, the law said. The reports must also include sworn statements by physicians who perform abortions.
The reports will have to include the medical diagnosis and condition that would result in a "substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function or the medical diagnosis and condition that necessitated performance of an abortion to preserve the life of the patient," according to the law.
Other information physicians will need to fill out in the report include method of abortion care, whether the patient has received financial assistance from a nonprofit that supports pregnant women in the last 30 days, whether the patient has experienced domestic violence in the last 12 months and if the patient is living in a safe, stable and affordable place, according to the law.
The identities of physicians and medical facilities who fill out the report are to remain confidential unless the secretary of health and environment finds reasonable cause that the law was violated, is requesting disciplinary action and reveals the information to the state board of healing arts or a state attorney general.
HAWKINS â Some residents in the City of Hawkins said theyâve grown frustrated with their local police department after an officer shot and killed a neighborhood dog in early May. According to our new partner KETK, their concerns have intensified because the officer involved has not been disciplined. City hall was packed Monday night with citizens willing to give their opinion.
One person said, âItâs either fix [the police department] or get rid of it because our community deserves better.â
âI shot two of them stray dogs that were going to kill me and my dogs, so I just want to speak up for the people here to let you know, me and my family and us we all need the police department here,â Robert Burke, a Hawkins resident, said. Continue reading Hawkins residents raise concerns about their police department
WASHINGTON (AP) â An Air Force instructor pilot was killed when the ejection seat activated while the turboprop aircraft was still on the ground at a Texas military base, the Air Force said Tuesday.
The instructor pilot was in a T-6A Texan II at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, when the seat activated during ground operations on Monday. The pilot was taken to a hospital and died Tuesday, the Air Force said. The pilot’s name was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
The T-6A Texan II is a single-engine two-seater aircraft that serves as a primary trainer for Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps pilots. In a training flight an instructor can sit in the front or back seat; both have lightweight Martin-Baker ejection seats that are activated by a handle on the seat.
In 2022, the T-6 fleet and hundreds of other Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps aircraft were grounded after inspections revealed a potential defect with one component of the ejection seat’s cartridge actuated devices, or CADs. The fleet was inspected and in some instances the CADs were replaced.
When activated the cartridge explodes and starts the ejection sequence.
Ejection seats have been credited with saving pilots’ lives, but they also have failed at critical moments in aircraft accidents. Investigators identified ejection seat failure as a partial cause of an F-16 crash that killed 1st Lt. David Schmitz, 32, in June 2020.
In 2018, four members of a B-1 bomber crew earned the Distinguished Flying Cross when, with their aircraft on fire, they discovered one of the four ejection seats was indicating failure. Instead of bailing out, all of the crew decided to remain in the burning aircraft and land it so they all would have the best chance of surviving. All of the crew survived.
DALLAS (AP) â Kansas City Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice won’t face charges from the injured person over his reported involvement in an alleged assault a little over a month after Rice was one of the speeding drivers in a chain-reaction crash that led to multiple charges.
Dallas police said Tuesday the reporting party had signed an affidavit of non-prosecution over the incident at a downtown nightclub, but that the investigation is continuing.
Law enforcement officials have told The Dallas Morning News that Rice was suspected of assaulting a person early May 6, and that the person went to a hospital after the encounter.
Dallas police did not name Rice as the suspect in detailing a report of the incident to The Associated Press.
Riceâs attorney, Texas state Sen. Royce West, didnât respond to a message from the AP seeking comment. The NFL declined to comment.
Rice reported to the Chiefs for voluntary workouts last month, not long after turning himself in to Dallas police over multiple charges, including aggravated assault, involving the high-speed crash.
West has previously acknowledged Rice was speeding in a Lamborghini SUV when the crash involving six vehicles happened March 30. Police said Theodore Knox was driving a Corvette.
According to a Texas Department of Transportation report, Rice was driving the Lamborghini at a top speed of 119 mph before impact, while the Corvette that Knox was driving had a top speed of 116 mph.
Rice, a former SMU and Dallas-area high school player who turned 24 last month, and Knox have been charged with one count of aggravated assault, one count of collision involving serious bodily injury and six counts of collision involving injury. Knox also played for SMU.
Four people were injured in the crash, and police said the occupants of the Lamborghini and Corvette left the scene without providing information or determining whether anyone needed medical attention.
Rice was drafted in the second round by Kansas City last year and played in 20 games, including the Chiefsâ 25-22 overtime victory over San Francisco in the Super Bowl. He led the team with seven touchdowns receiving in the regular season.
It's been a couple of weeks since Netflix's hit roast of Tom Brady, but the night's undisputed heavyweight champ, Nikki Glaser, is still unpacking it.
Glaser shared why she thought Ben Affleck "bombed" during his time at the podium, in which he was supposed to be skewering his former New England Patriot pal.
"He didn't prepare," Glaser told Barstool Sports' KFC Radio podcast.
"He's someone who's famous enough that he thinks that this is probably beneath [him] to do this," she said, speculating that Ben thought, "'I'm just gonna do a favor. It's not going to be that big of a deal.'"
Affleck's set was dubbed a "train wreck" by some online snarkers â who, incidentally, became the focus of Ben's "self-centered" set, Glaser said.
Affleck gave a mirthless tirade against online trolls instead of focusing on Brady. "You guys out there talking s*** behind your f****** keyboard, that doesn't make you a fan, that makes you a b****," the actor said in part.
Glaser offered that the normally "brilliant" Affleck either "didn't work hard enough" on it "or he just picked a bad premise and then he had to stick to it the whole time."
In a separate interview, Nikki also unpacked the booing suffered by roaster Kim Kardashian â an audience reaction that was edited by Netflix after the live event.
For one thing, Swifties weren't behind it, Glaser told the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast on Tuesday. In spite of Taylor Swift's reported feud with Kardashian, Nikki blamed "a wild guy who's a comedian" who was just "starting s***."
"He just had too many drinks or something, and he's not affiliated with Swifties or anything [and] just felt like saying a boo into the air, and apparently everyone was so riled up [they followed]," Nikki said.
(NEW YORK) -- The number of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) around the world is increasing and is a "major concern" for health officials, according to a new report published Tuesday from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The report found four curable STIs -- chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis and trichomoniasis -- are responsible for more than 1 million infections daily among adults between ages 15 and 49. Cases of syphilis, in particular, have been rising rapidly.
The number of new syphilis cases among adults between ages 15 and 49 increased from 7.1 million in 2020 to 8 million in 2022, according to the report.
There have also been increases in the rate of congenital syphilis, which occurs when a baby is born with the infection after the mother passed it on during pregnancy. Between 2020 and 2022, the rate per 100,000 live births per year rose from 425 to 523.
The global trends mirror those seen in the United States. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released earlier his year found the total number of syphilis cases increased more than 17% to 207,255 between 2021 and 2022, reaching the greatest number of cases reported since 1950.
The report also found that cases of antibiotic resistant gonorrhea are increasing, which was labeled another "concern." As of 2023, nine countries reported elevated levels -- from 5% to 40% -- of resistance to ceftriaxone, which is considered a last line treatment for gonorrhea.
Data points to a lack of screening for the rise in STIs as well as other issues including a lack access to care. Additionally, disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic likely delayed screening for many.
"The rising incidence of syphilis raises major concerns," WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. "Fortunately, there has been important progress on a number of other fronts including in accelerating access to critical health commodities including diagnostics and treatment."
"We have the tools required to end these epidemics as public health threats by 2030, but we now need to ensure that, in the context of an increasingly complex world, countries do all they can to achieve the ambitious targets they set themselves," the statement continued.
Not all trends showed an upward trajectory, in 2022, the number of people newly infected with HIV globally fell to 1.3 million from 1.5 million, according to the report. However, the WHO notes that certain populations -- men who have sex with men; people who inject drugs; sex workers; transgender people; and those currently in prisons and other closed settings â continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV.
In a press release, the WHO noted there have been gains in expanding STIs, HIV and hepatitis services and several countries have eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV and/or syphilis.
To drive rates down, the report outlines some recommendations including accelerating efforts to decriminalizes and destigmatize those affected by STIs and other infections as well as strengthening the focus on primary prevention, diagnosis and treatment to raise awareness of STIs and infections.
Elvis Presleyâs eldest granddaughter, actress Riley Keough, is fighting to keep Elvis' legendary Memphis home, Graceland, from going on the auction block.
According to legal documents, a company called Naussany Investments & Private Lending has claimed that Elvis' only child, Lisa Marie Presley, borrowed $3.8 million from them, putting up Graceland as collateral, and then didnât pay them back.
Naussany then put a lien on the iconic home and its grounds, and scheduled an auction of the property for May 23 â but Riley went to court to put a stop to it.
Riley's lawyers argue in her suit that Lisa Marie never borrowed money from Naussany and the company âappears to be a false entity created for the purpose of defrauding" Lisa Marie's heirs, Promenade Trust, which is the company that owns Graceland, and anyone who may purchase Graceland in its auction.It also claims that any documents claiming Lisa Marie took out a loan are forgeries.
A judge has issued a temporary restraining order on the sale, with a hearing on the matter scheduled for Wednesday.
Elvis purchased Graceland in 1957. It was turned into a museum after his death, drawing visitors from all over the world. Each year on August 16, the anniversary of Elvis' death, they hold a candlelit vigil in his honor.
ABC Audio has reached out to Rileyâs rep for comment on the suit.
(ATLANTA) -- Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Judge Scott McAfee will face voters on Tuesday during the state's primary election -- both of whom have been key players in the election interference case against former President Donald Trump and his allies.
Willis will face off against Atlanta attorney Christian Wise Smith in the Democratic primary; McAfee will go up against attorney Robert Patillo in a nonpartisan election.
If either Willis or McAfee loses their primary and is booted from the job, the election interference case could be further delayed. The case has already faced delays over efforts to remove Willis from the prosecution.
If Willis wins Tuesday, she'll face Republican lawyer Courtney Kramer in the general election. Kramer previously worked in the Trump White House and on his campaign.
During an appearance on the "Rachel Maddow Show," Willis said she plans to "win big" in her primary, framing her election around a rebuke against the threats she has faced since taking office.
"Having prosecutors that are free from interference and are allowed to just look at cases, look at the facts, and if people ⊠broke the law to bring charges, has to go on for us to live in a free society," said Willis.
Willis' election comes as Nathan Wade, the lead prosecutor in the Fulton County case, resigned after Judge McAfee ruled that either she or Wade must step aside from the case due to a "significant appearance of impropriety" stemming from a romantic relationship between the two. The Georgia Court of Appeals has since agreed to review the disqualification ruling, delaying the trial further.
McAfee, who is overseeing the racketeering case against Donald Trump and 14 others, is also on the ballot in a nonpartisan election.
McAfee's election bid comes after he was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2022. He's now running for his first full term. He is up against Patillo.
McAfee's campaign website bills him as someone who has "devoted his career to public service" as a prosecutor, and someone who "has pledged to be fully transparent with all public matters that come before him."
Georgia's election on Tuesday does not include a presidential primary -- that happened in March, and President Joe Biden and Trump won their respective primaries in the state.
Oscar winner Holly Hunter has joined the cast of Paramount+'s forthcoming Star Trek series Starfleet Academy.
The Piano veteran will star as the captain and chancellor of the titular academy at which young recruits train to someday boldly go where no one has gone before.
The series gets underway later in the summer of 2024.
According to Paramount+, the forthcoming show "introduces viewers to a young group of cadets who come together to pursue a common dream of hope and optimism. Under the watchful and demanding eyes of their instructors, they discover what it takes to become Starfleet officers as they navigate blossoming friendships, explosive rivalries, first loves and a new enemy that threatens both the Academy and the Federation itself."
In the announcement, co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau enthused, "It feels like we've spent our entire lives watching Holly Hunter be a stone-cold genius. To have her extraordinary authenticity, fearlessness, sense of humor, and across the board brilliance leading the charge on Starfleet Academy is a gift to all of us, and to the enduring legacy of Star Trek."
(LOS ANGELES) -- The death investigation into "Friends" star Matthew Perry remains ongoing, especially in respect to where he acquired the ketamine that led to his death in October, according to local and federal law enforcement sources.
Perry died at his home from the acute effects of ketamine, according to the autopsy report released in December by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner.
Detectives have been interviewing people who could have information on the source of the drugs, the sources told ABC News, but that they do not have information to narrow in on a source. No arrests have been made.
The Los Angeles Police Department said the case is open and ongoing, with sources telling ABC News that the police have been in contact with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The DEA said had no comment.
The actor, most well-known for his role as Chandler Bing on "Friends," died at 54 on Oct. 28, 2023. He also starred in several other TV series, including "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," and films like "17 Again" and "Fools Rush In."
In a statement the day after responding to his home, the Los Angeles Police Department said Perry "was discovered by a witness unresponsive in his jacuzzi." There were no signs of foul play at the scene, according to law enforcement sources.
Perry was reported to have been receiving ketamine infusions for depression and anxiety, according to the autopsy report, but the medical examiner wrote the ketamine in his system at death could not have been from that infusion therapy because ketamineâs half life is three to four hours or less. His method of intake was listed as unknown.
In his memoir, "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing," released in 2022, Perry opened up about his addiction to alcohol and prescription painkillers, which was triggered after a doctor prescribed him Vicodin following a jet ski accident.
In a "20/20" interview with Diane Sawyer, Perry opened up about wanting to help people struggling with addiction, saying, "Obviously, because I was on 'Friends,' more people will listen to me. So I've got to take advantage of that, and I've got to help as many people as I can."
TYLER, Texas â Lawsuits and claims from the Phillips family related to their criminal cases could cost Smith County an estimated $300,000. County officials said this in a commissionerâs court meeting on Tuesday. According to our news partner KETK, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Wilson provided the briefing on pending or contemplated litigation against the county involving Karen, Derek and Lance Phillips, as well as family friend Cody Voss.
