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(WASHINGTON) -- The U.S. Supreme Court has denied Karen Read's emergency request to delay her state murder trial until it reviews her appeal. No explanation was given for the denial of her request.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson denied the request on behalf of the court.
Read is accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, in January 2022. Prosecutors alleged Read hit O'Keefe with her vehicle and left him to die as Boston was hit with a major blizzard. Read has denied the allegations and maintained her innocence.
Read claims her retrial would violate double jeopardy after several jurors from her first trial said she was acquitted of two of the three counts. The judge declared a mistrial in Read's first trial last year after the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict.
She was charged with first-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. She pleaded not guilty.
Read's attorneys have asked multiple appeals courts -- and now the Supreme Court -- to dismiss the charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a fatal accident in the retrial. They argued in court filings that retrying her on the charges would violate double jeopardy protections because, based on subsequent statements from four jurors, the jury had reached a unanimous decision to acquit Read on the charges.
All of those requests have been rejected by judges.
Three new jurors were seated on Wednesday, bringing the running total to 15. The panel is comprised of eight men and seven women.
The court seeks to seat 16 jurors in total, with12 deliberating the case and four serving as alternates.
Read told reporters outside the courthouse on Wednesday that the defense has used 11 of their 16 challenges, and the commonwealth has used 12 during jury selection, according to WCVB.
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(WASHINGTON) -- The Trump administration has frozen more than $1 billion in federal funding to Cornell and $790 million to Northwestern, as the government investigates alleged civil rights violations at the schools, according to two White House officials.
"On Monday, several Trump administration agencies froze roughly $790M of federal funding and roughly $1.05B of federal funding from Northwestern and Cornell, respectively," a senior administration official told ABC News. "The money was frozen in connection with several ongoing, credible, and concerning Title VI investigations."
The funding pause mostly involves grants from and contracts with the Department of Agriculture, Defense, Education and Health and Human Services, according to White House officials.
Northwestern said in a statement to ABC that it was informed by "members of the media" that the federal government plans to "freeze a significant portion of our federal funding. The University said it "has not received any official notification."
"Federal funds that Northwestern receives drive innovative and life-saving research," the University said. "This type of research is now at jeopardy. The University has fully cooperated with investigations by both the Department of Education and Congress."
Cornell wrote in a statement they have received "more than 75 stop work orders from the Department of Defense related to research that is profoundly significant to American national defense, cybersecurity, and health."
"We are actively seeking information from federal officials to learn more about the basis for these decisions," Cornell said.
"The affected grants include research into new materials for jet engines, propulsion systems, large-scale information networks, robotics, superconductors, and space and satellite communications, as well as cancer research," the school continued.
The New York Times first reported on the funding freeze.
Legal experts are questioning the authority of the Trump administration to pause the federal funding.
"This is completely lawless, as far as I can tell, to the extent that we don't even know what legal provision the government is relying upon," Genevieve Lakier, professor of law at the University of Chicago, said.
If the funding halt is justified under the Civil Rights Act, as White House officials have told ABC News, Lakier said the law requires there to be a set of procedures followed and notice given.
"There has to be a hearing. You have to give members of Congress 30 days before you do it. You have to give the school 30 days. You have to allow the right to appeal. None of this is being followed," Lakier said.
Michael Dorf, professor at Cornell Law School, echoed Lakier's assessment.
"There's a federal statute that explains if agencies and the government believe a funding recipient is not complying with its civil rights obligations, there's a whole set of procedures they have to follow before you cut those off," Dorf said. "The government has followed none of those procedures."
The move comes as the administration doubles down on allegations of antisemitic conduct and harassment from elite universities.
The Department of Education and other agencies are reviewing Harvard University for allegedly fostering antisemitism on its campus. The administration stripped Columbia University of $400 million in grants earlier this month after a task force investigation says it found inaction by the school to protect Jewish students.
In response to the review, Harvard President Alan Garber released a statement saying, "We fully embrace the important goal of combatting antisemitism, one of the most insidious forms of bigotry."
(NEW YORK) -- Harvey Weinstein was back in court on Wednesday with less than a week before the start of his second New York sex assault trial. His trial is expected to last four to six weeks once testimony begins, prosecutors at the Manhattan district attorneyâs office said Wednesday.
Jury selection begins Tuesday and is expected to last as long as five days, Judge Curtis Farber said.
Prospective jurors will be told about the nature of the case and the significant media attention it has received and must decide whether those things are an impediment to their ability to be fair and impartial, Farber said.
Weinstein, 73, sat at the defense table in a wheelchair as he has dealt with multiple health issues in the last year, including emergency heart surgery in September and being diagnosed with leukemia in October.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges of forcibly performing oral sex on a woman in 2006. He will also be retried for two other alleged sexual assaults after his conviction on those charges was overturned on appeal in April 2024.
The judge gave the attorneys 40 minutes to question each group of potential jurors after defense attorney Arthur Aidala asked for additional time.
âYou have a shtick,â Farber deadpanned before granting the exuberant criminal defense lawyer an extra 10 minutes to question jurors.
Jurors will be told Weinstein has no obligation to testify in his own defense. If, however, he does, Farber decided there would be certain limits on the kinds of things he can be asked about his prior record.
Weinstein will stand trial on a new sexual assault charge at the same time he is retried on two other sexual assault charges after his earlier conviction was overturned.
In 2020, he was found guilty of criminal sexual assault and third-degree rape, receiving 23 years in prison.
His conviction was overturned after the appeals court found the judge in his first trial "erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes."
AUSTIN – Texas Supreme Court Justice Jeff Boyd will retire this summer, leaving yet another vacancy for Gov. Greg Abbott to fill.
Boyd was appointed to the court by Gov. Rick Perry in 2012, after serving as the governorâs chief of staff and general counsel. He won reelection in 2014 and 2020, and would be up for reelection in 2026. Boyd said in a statement Wednesday that he would leave the court near the end of the term this summer.
Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock said Boyd is a âmodel of integrity, impartiality and diligence.â
âHis sharp insights and thorough analysis have shaped and strengthened the opinions of the Court, and his abundant good humor around the office have made him a beloved friend and mentor to Justices and staff alike,â Blacklock said. âJustice Boyd leaves the Supreme Court, and the law of our great State, better than he found it.â
Boyd did not share his next steps, except to say it was âtime to let another take the helm.â
By retiring before the end of his term, Boyd gifts Abbott the power to decide who will fill that seat on the bench. Abbott, a former Supreme Court justice himself, has appointed six of the nine justices on the bench, including Blacklock and, recently, James Sullivan, both of whom served as his general counsel before ascending.
Abbottâs next appointment will undoubtedly be a Republican attorney or judge cut from the same cloth. Speaking to a gathering of the conservative Federalist Society last week, Abbott said he looks to appoint judges based on âcertain core principles,â like originalism and strict constructionism.
âI’m looking for ⊠people who will apply conservative applications of the law, not expanding it, but deciding on the basis of what legislators or Congress or the Constitution itself decides,â he said. âAnd there’s an abundance of those types of either lawyers or judges already that I have the opportunity to choose from.â
Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.
ATHENS – Our news partner, KETK, reports that three people were arrested Tuesday afternoon after a large amount of marijuana and other illegal narcotics were discovered in a home near Athens.
According to the Henderson County Sheriffâs Office, around 2:50 p.m. narcotics investigators searched a home in the 2300 block of County Road 3718 near Athens and found seven different types of illegal drugs, five firearms with two being stolen from Arlington and Grand Prairie and a large amount of cash.
The different illegal drugs that were found by investigators were marijuana, cocaine, crack cocaine, fentanyl pills, morphine pills, xanax pills, and bottles of promethazine that are labeled for RX only.
Officials said Isaac Antwon Darty, 26 of Athens was found in possession of a large amount of marijuana, packaged in several different size bags for sale. Breann Danyelle Oneal, 27 of Dallas and Cesar Armondo Ornelas, 19 of Athens were also found inside the home. All three people were arrested and taken to the Henderson County Jail on the charges of four counts of manufacture or delievery of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, two counts of theft of firearm and active warrants.
Jennifer Lopez first hosted the American Music Awards back in 2015 and has performed on the show 10 times. Now she's back for another round.
The singer, actress and businesswoman will be front and center for this year's iteration of the show, which will air live from Las Vegas May 26 on CBS and stream on Paramount+.
J-Lo first teased that she'd be returning to the show during last year's American Music Awards 50th Anniversary Special. In addition to hosting, she'll perform, showcasing her "unparalleled artistry and signature mix of music, dance, and visual spectacle," according to a press release.
The American Music Awards is the largest fan-voted award show in the country. Nominations will be announced at a later date.
J-Lo's most recent album, This Is Me ... Now, came out in February 2024, along with a companion film and a documentary. All three projects were inspired by her second chance at love with then-husband Ben Affleck, from whom she filed for divorce in April of that year. The album was supposed to be followed by a major tour, but she later canceled it, citing the need to spend more time with family and friends.
Jennifer will kick off a run of European tour dates on July 1. She also has the movie Kiss of the Spider Woman coming out later this year, and another film, Office Romance, which doesn't have a release date yet.
TYLER – On Wednesday, April 9, the City Council approved the purchase of a 14.6-acre tract at 3150 Robertson Rd. for $1,275,000 to build a new fire training facility. The Tyler Fire Department will develop a state-of-the-art training campus to strengthen emergency response capabilities. The facility will feature advanced equipment and training resources to better prepare firefighters for a wide range of emergency scenarios. Located in the Tyler Industrial Park, the site is near Tyler ISD’s Career and Technology Center, Atwood’s distribution center and Fire Station 5, creating opportunities for regional collaboration and educational partnerships. The Fire Department’s current training facility located at 701 Fair Park Drive will be decommissioned.
McALLEN, Texas (AP) â Judges in Texas and New York on Wednesday said they would temporarily bar the U.S. government from deporting Venezuelans jailed in parts of those two states while their lawyers challenge the Trump administrationâs use of a rarely-invoked law letting presidents imprison and deport noncitizens in times of war.
The judges took actions after civil rights lawyers sought to protect five men identified by the government as belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang, a claim their lawyers dispute. But the judges said some others in their judicial districts similarly situated would also be protected from deportations relying on the Alien Enemies Act.
The judicial moves were the first to occur after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled the administration can resume deportations, but deportees must be afforded some due process before they are flown away, including reasonable time to argue to a judge that they should not be deported.
The rulings did not address the constitutionality of the act. The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the judge in Texas to decide on whether it is lawful to use the Alien Enemies Act.
The United States is not at war with Venezuela, but President Donald Trumpâs administration has argued the U.S. is being invaded by members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
U.S. immigration authorities already have deported more than 100 people and sent them to a notorious prison in El Salvador without letting them challenge their removals in court.
Civil liberties lawyers brought lawsuits on behalf of three men detained in a facility in Texas and two held in an Orange County, New York, facility.
Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. signed a temporary restraining order in Texas while Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said at a New York hearing that he planned to sign a temporary order Wednesday to block removals while court challenges proceed.
In Texas, Judge Rodriguez said anyone similarly situated at the El Valle Detention Center will be protected. In New York, Judge Hellerstein said his order will protect Venezuelans in the Southern District of New York, which includes the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, along with Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan and Westchester counties.
In Texas, the three plaintiffs include a man who is HIV positive and fears lacking access to medical care if deported.
The men were identified as gang members by physical attributes using the âAlien Enemy Validation Guide,â in which an ICE agent tallies points by relying on tattoos, hand gestures, symbols, logos, graffiti, and manner of dress, according to the ACLU. Experts who study the gang have told the ACLU the method is not reliable.
The lawsuits sought class action status to affect others who are detained and face similar deportation. The ACLU had requested a temporary restraining order to keep their petitioners in the U.S. and for the judge to declare the 18-century Alien Enemies Act, which the Trump administration is invoking, unlawful.
In New York, Hellerstein set a hearing for April 22 to decide whether a temporary restraining order he planned to sign Wednesday would be turned into a preliminary injunction.
At a hearing, Deputy Attorney General Drew Ensign from the Justice Department in Washington opposed a temporary order.
Ensign said heâd been told by immigration authorities that there were âonly a handfulâ of Venezuelans, probably less than 10, detained in New York’s Southern District.
When Hellerstein said 10 individuals would be enough to make up a class, Ensign said: âWe disagree.â
The case pertains to two Venezuelan men who also face deportation under the Alien Enemies Act. Civil liberties groups have sued the government on behalf of the two men, one 21 the other 32, who are being held by immigration authorities at a jail about 45 miles (72 kilometers) northwest of New York City.
Lee Gelernt, an ACLU attorney who argued for a restraining order in New York, said outside court that the ACLU was proceeding district by district at the moment but eventually will likely seek a nationwide injunction so civil rights attorneys donât have to file cases in 96 different jurisdictions.
The Alien Enemies Act has only been used three times in the past, during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II, when it was used to justify the mass internment of people of Japanese heritage while the U.S. was at war with Japan.
The administration plans to expand its use for members of the Salvadoran gang MS-13, Todd Lyons, acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, told reporters Tuesday during Border Security Expo, a trade show in Phoenix.
WASHINGTON (AP) â Oil prices swung wildly on Wednesday, sinking to a four-year low in anticipation of slowing economic growth due to a burgeoning trade war, before jumping 2% after President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on most of his tariffs.
U.S. benchmark crude followed U.S. markets higher in the afternoon rising 2%, or $1.20, to $60.79 per barrel after the latest reversal by the Trump administration.
That’s after it declined 4.3% to $56.98 per barrel as late as midday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices had fallen further earlier in the day to levels not seen since February 2021, the depth of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Energy prices mostly have been in decline since Trump’s inauguration in January, with the cost of a barrel of oil sliding about $20 since the start of the year. At this time last year, a barrel of U.S. crude cost $85. A barrel was going for around $71 at the beginning of April, before tariffs were launched.
Brent crude, the European standard, also climbed into positive territory Wednesday to $63.90 per barrel.
The most recent swoon in energy prices arrived when Trumpâs latest round of tariffs kicked in after midnight, including a 104% tax on goods coming from China. The worldâs second-largest economy quickly retaliated, with Beijing saying it would raise tariffs on imported U.S. goods to 84% on Thursday.
European Union member states followed suit, issuing retaliatory tariffs on $23 billion in goods. For now, the targeted items are a tiny fraction of the 1.6 trillion euros ($1.8 trillion) in U.S.-EU annual trade.
Rapidly falling oil prices signal pessimism about economic growth and can be a harbinger of a recession as manufacturers cut production, businesses cut travel costs and families rethink vacation plans.
Delta Air Lines. which had anticipated a record year, pulled its financial forecasts for 2025 on Wednesday as the trade war scrambles expectations for business and household spending and depresses bookings across the travel sector.
âWith broad economic uncertainty around global trade, growth has largely stalled,â said Delta CEO Ed Bastian.
Shares of major U.S. oil companies fell as well Wednesday.
âWe are going into a recession,” Neil Dutta of Renaissance Macro Research wrote in a note to clients. âI donât think it is especially controversial to say so.â
Jack Lowden is in talks to play the romantic hero in the streamer's TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, according to Variety.
Fitzwilliam Darcy is the iconic literary character made famous for his relationship with protagonist Elizabeth Bennet in JaneAusten's classic 1813 novel.
Netflix did not comment on the casting news. The streamer announced the project in October 2024. This new adaptation is being written by Dolly Alderton.
No official casting has been announced so far, though there were unconfirmed rumors in the British press that Daisy Edgar-Jones is being eyed to play Elizabeth Bennet.
If Lowden were to take on the role, he'd join a roster of iconic portrayals of the character, including Colin Firth's performance in the 1995 BBC miniseries and Matthew Macfadyen's portrayal in the 2005 film by Joe Wright.
Peter Cushing and Laurence Olivier have also famously played the romance icon on screen.
(WASHINGTON) -- House Republicans are exhausting all legislative tools to prevent future votes on repealing President Donald Trump's tariffs -- doubling down on their support for the administration's policies as lawmakers narrowly passed a procedural hurdle to advance the Senate-approved GOP blueprint by a vote of 216-215.
GOP leaders on Wednesday inserted language into the "rule" for the budget blueprint that would prohibit the House, until at least September, from forcing a vote on legislation to rescind Trump's national emergencies authority.
"The rule provides that each day during the period from April 9, 2025, through September 30, 2025, shall not constitute a calendar day for purposes of section 202 of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622) with respect to a joint resolution terminating a national emergency declared by the President on April 2, 2025," the rule states.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., defended the move, telling reporters, "I've made it very clear I think the president has executive authority. It's an appropriate level of authority to deal with the unfair trade practices. That's part of the role of the president is to negotiate with other countries."
Johnson said Trump told him Tuesday night that "there are almost 70 countries that are [in] some stage in negotiation of more fair-trade agreement agreements with the United States. I think that is in the interest of the American people. I think that is an 'America First' policy that will be effective, and so we have to give them the space to do it."
House Democrats, led by Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., moved to force a vote on Tuesday on terminating the national emergency authority and blocking Trump's sweeping tariffs. Now, that vote is unlikely to occur.
This is the second time Johnson has moved to stop the legislative calendar to prevent votes on Trump's authority on tariffs. Under House rules, these votes would typically come up within 15 calendar days but now will not if the "rule" passes during the vote series Wednesday afternoon.
"I think you've got to give him the space," Johnson argued on Trump's tariffs. "It is having the desired effect right now. You see a number of nations going forward and proposing much more free trade agreements with the United States. The American people deserve that."
JACKSONVILLE – According to a report from our news partner, KETK, a man has been arrested by Jacksonville police officers after firing three rounds at his neighborâs house on Tuesday before barricading himself in his own home.
Police responded to the 200 block of Ivy Street on Tuesday and secured the area before requesting backup from the Cherokee County SWAT Team which included Cherokee County Sheriffâs Department personnel. The suspect, 24-year-old Isaias Mena Sandoval of Jacksonville, barricaded himself inside his house for about an hour until law enforcement took him into custody. No injuries were reported, the police department said.
A search warrant for the residence will be issued and additional charges may be filed pending the investigation.
(SECURITY-WIDEFIELD, Colo.) -- Three children and two dogs were rescued from a storm drainage system in Colorado, according to fire officials.
Officials responded to a neighborhood in Security-Widefield, Colorado, searching for "three children and two dogs lost in the maze of the underground storm drainage system" over the weekend, the Security Fire Department said in a statement on Monday.
After an "extensive search," the children and the dogs were located and were extracted through a manhole in the street "more than a half-mile from where they had entered," officials said.
"Kids may think it would be fun to explore storm drains looking for those ninja turtles, but it can be very dangerous and even deadly," the fire department said.
Even though the children and canines were safely removed, officials emphasized the dangers of being in a storm drainage system.
"Getting lost underground, hypothermia, rapid weather change flooding in drainage system (drowning risk), oxygen deficiency, toxic gases (such as hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide) and of course critters like rattlesnakes," the fire department said.
The fire department encouraged parents to talk to their children about "the dangers of playing in and around" storm drains.
Officials were not clear why the children and the dogs were exploring the storm drains or how long they were lost.
(RALEIGH, N.C.) -- In the Research Triangle area in and around Raleigh, North Carolina, home sales and construction development are booming as thousands flock to the area in search of affordable homes close to work.
However, the severe tariffs President Donald Trump put on virtually all U.S. trading partners have created uncertainty within the U.S. housing market.
Leonard Windham, a Raleigh area realtor, gave ABC News a tour of a new housing development in Youngsville -- an up-and-coming town just 20 miles north of Raleigh.
"In the real estate industry, we're just not sure what's going to happen," Windam said. "If there's a possibility, of course, as the price of construction material goes up, it could affect the home price."
Realtors and homebuilders told ABC News they are moving forward with their spring housing market goals despite not knowing how the new tariffs could impact costs.
Tariffs may change home construction as we know it, as rising costs could potentially encourage construction companies and developers to invest in American manufacturing.
Alex Yost, vice president of the North Carolina Home Builders Association, told ABC News he is rethinking where to source materials when building new homes.
"We're going to be looking at pricing. We're going to be making sure that our clients get the value that they want and need," he said. "And so, to the extent that Chinese light fixtures end up costing more, then that's certainly going to factor into the decisions that we make, absolutely."
Yost noted that his primary concern is if and how tariffs will affect their building material supply chain, but he's also worried about consumer confidence.
"Last week's news about the market is probably going to cause some buyer confidence gaps, and so we are concerned," he said. "Mostly, what we're concerned about is that buyers feel good about making the acquisition of a new home, and we build luxury homes, but the entire marketplace is built on people buying the most expensive thing they ever bought. They've got to feel good going into it."
Homebuilders breathed a collective sigh of relief after Trump exempted major construction materials like Canadian lumber and Mexican gypsum from retaliatory tariffs. However, costs will rise for imported steel, aluminum, copper, home appliances and other building materials sourced abroad.
Builder confidence in newly built single-family homes is at the lowest level it's been in seven months, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
Home costs are expected to rise another $9,200, the group said. It estimated that about 7% of products used in new construction projects come from other countries -- that amount can fluctuate depending on which products a home buyer wants and how much they are willing to spend.
Some prospective homebuyers told ABC News they are not worried about tariffs impacting their ability to buy a home, simply because they haven't seen home prices shoot up as a result.
"Personally, no because I don't have a whole lot of experience of what that is going to mean for me as a homeowner," Deishali DeWitt, a 33-year-old first-time home buyer, said.
DeWitt, who has been looking for a year, told ABC News that prices were "ridiculous" before the tariffs.
"The past or two years ago, I remember lookingâŠhouses were about half the price that they are right now," she said. "So that's been part of why it's taken me some time. Like, do I really want to pay for a house that's $600k right now? That was worth $250k just two years ago?"
Windham -- the Raleigh area realtor -- said first-time home buyers care most about one thing: cost per month. That cost has been pushing homebuyers farther out from major cities, to more affordable areas with new development.
"They're looking at monthly payment, and they have a set number in mind," Windham said.
If buyers pull back amid economic uncertainty and there's less demand for homes, residential construction could also slow down and potentially exacerbate the country's housing shortage.
"When we start to see tariffs come into play, what then happens to an interrupted supply chain or is there an interrupted chain that causes it to take a couple weeks longer to get cabinets?" Yost said. "That can extend my build time. Then the client may not be in their home for a couple extra months. All those things have real human impact."
Anjelica Huston is opening up about her secret battle with cancer.
The actress revealed she had "a bout with cancer" after she made the 2019 film John Wick: Chapter 3 â Parabellum in an interview with People shared Wednesday.
"I managed to survive it, and I'm proud of myself," Huston said. "It's not something that came lightly."
Huston has decided to keep the type of cancer she had private. She said her diagnosis came as a big shock.
"It made me conscious of what I shouldn't do, of places I shouldn't go. One of those places was taking life too seriously. So now when the opportunity arises, I laugh, and I try not to make a big deal out of things," Huston said.
She also confirmed that she's now "in the clear," meaning fully cancer-free.
"I'm at the four-year mark, and that means so much to me," Huston said. "It's a fantastic thing. I'm very proud of myself, and I've been very lucky. My doctors have been wonderful."
Huston had a simple celebration after she found out she was cancer-free, saying she "just walked in my garden and smelled the roses and thought how clever I was."
Now, Huston said she is ready to share what she has been through in order to hopefully help others.
"Sometimes you feel like you don't want to talk about it for the obvious reasons, but there's a lot to be said for talking about it and getting it out there and celebrating the fact that one's come through," Huston said. "Life is tenuous and wonderful. It also gives you the idea that the world is big and you can somehow match up to it. That you're ready for whatever happens."
