(NEW YORK) -- The defense in the Daniel Penny manslaughter and negligent homicide case rested without their client taking the stand.
Penny is charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide in the May 2023 New York City subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man. Neely was acting erratically in a subway car when Penny put him in the deadly chokehold.
Penny, a former Marine, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The judge will hold a charging conference with the attorneys Monday to discuss his instructions to the jury.
The jury is off until after Thanksgiving, when the trial will resume with closing arguments, the judge’s instructions and deliberations.
TROUP – The Troup Police Department said that the city has reached an agreement with the family of a juvenile who reportedly drew graffiti on a public restroom on Nov. 20. According to our news partner KETK, officials said they identified the juvenile while investigating the vandalized restroom at the city splash pad. Police said the youth was cooperative and remorseful. The city said the family agreed to pay for the cost of cleaning the graffiti.
Photo by Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images for Sean "Diddy" Combs
(NEW YORK) -- Sean "Diddy" Combs appeared again in a New York City courtroom on Friday as he continues to fight for his release on bail in his racketeering and sex trafficking case.
Combs' lawyers argued he should be released on bail and placed on home confinement in a three-bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side under 24/7 monitoring by three full-time security professionals, while prosecutors said the hip-hop impresario "cannot be trusted" to follow the rules of pretrial release.
The judge did not immediately rule but said he would have a decision next week.
The defense said it was proposing conditions "far more restrictive" than Combs faces in jail, including limiting phone calls to lawyers, restricting visitors other than lawyers and specific family members, keeping a visitor log and avoiding contact with witnesses or potential witnesses.
"If what the government is afraid of is that Mr. Combs is going to be violent toward someone, there's just zero chance of that happening," defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said.
Combs blew kisses to his family and tapped his heart as he entered federal court Friday in a beige jail smock over a white long-sleeve T-shirt. He hugged his attorneys and, once seated, turned in his chair to smile at his mother and children, who were seated in the second row.
Prosecutors reminded the judge "this is a case about violence" and argued the conditions proposed in the defense bail package fell short.
"At bottom, in order for conditions to be sufficient there has to be some level of trust that the defendant will follow them," prosecutor Christy Slavik said. "Simply put, the defendant cannot be trusted."
She also questioned the efficacy of a team of private security guards paid for by Combs.
"There is really just no separation for the defendant. You work for him. There's just no way to trust that any private security firm could do what the court requires and ensure compliance," Slavik said.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and prostitution charges.
His attorneys conceded hotel security camera video obtained by CNN depicted "physical conduct" between Combs and his ex-girlfriend Cassie but argued the video should not be used to keep Combs behind bars.
The defense argued in a filing on Thursday that prosecutors "invented" the narrative using a "manipulated version" of the video. The defense insisted the video did not depict a "freak off," the name for the sex-fueled parties allegedly held by Combs, but rather showed a domestic dispute in which Combs ran down the hall of the hotel to recover his clothes and cellphone.
"It's our defense to these charges that this was a toxic end of a loving relationship," Agnifilo said Friday.
Federal prosecutors said "it was a bit puzzling" the defense brought up the video because Combs does not dispute what it shows.
"The defendant admitted it and apologized for it in a public Instagram post. Shoving, kicking and dragging a female victim," Slavik said.
Peacock just launched its thriller series Day of the Jackal on Nov. 14, but reviews and viewership have been strong enough for the streamer to renew the series, ABC Audio has confirmed.
The modern retelling of the bestselling book and classic film of the same name stars Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne as the titular assassin known as the Jackal.
Peacock announced that the co-production with Sky TV ranked #1 on the streaming service's Top 10 TV Shows chart, and its opening weekend was a top five original series debut for Peacock, according to preliminary Nielsen data.
Also starring in the series is Lashana Lynch, from Captain Marvel and the James Bond hit No Time to Die, who plays a British spy sent to hunt the killer down.
Their "thrilling cat-and-mouse chase across Europe" leaves destruction in its wake, the streamer teases.
AUSTIN (AP) – The Texas Supreme Court on Friday overturned a lower court ruling that state Attorney General Ken Paxton testify in a whistleblower lawsuit at the heart of impeachment charges brought against him in 2023.
The court on Friday said Paxton’s office does not dispute any issue in the lawsuit by four former Paxton employees and agreed to any judgment in the case.
“In a major win for the State of Texas, the state Supreme Court has sided with Attorney General Paxton against former OAG employees whose effort to prolong costly, politically-motivated litigation against the agency has wasted public resources for years,” a statement from Paxton’s office said.
TYLER – Our news partner, KETK, reports that the Tyler Police Department said they arrested a 32-year-old Tyler man on Friday for possession or promotion of child pornography.
Thirty-two-year-old Ryan Mosely of Tyler, was arrested as the result of an investigation that Tyler PD said they started after they received information from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Mosely has been booked in the the Smith County Jail where officials said he’s being held on a $750,000 bond. Tyler PD thanked the U.S. Marshal’s Office, the Smith County District Attorney’s Office and the Smith County Sheriff’s Office.
NACOGDOCHES – The Nacogdoches Police Department said a driver was killed when their vehicle crashed in the 2000 block of Old Tyler Road on Friday afternoon.
Our news partner, KETK, reports that the driver had already been taken out of the commercial vehicle by other motorists when when the Nacogdoches Police and Fire Departments responded to the scene. Officials said their reports indicate the vehicle was heading south on Old Tyler Road when it used the turn lane to try passing other vehicles. That’s when the vehicle left the roadway, hitting trees and rolling over. Nacogdoches PD said that the driver was declared dead at the scene by the Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace.
The vehicle was leaking diesel fuel, so the Texas Department of Transportation and a hazmat team responded to deal with the spill. Nacogdoches PD said they’re withholding the driver’s name while they work to notify their relatives.
State Emergency Service of Ukraine/AFP via Getty Images
(MOSCOW) -- Russia will continue testing and start mass producing the new "Oreshnik" missile, an intermediate-range ballistic missile that was used to target Dnipro, Ukraine, this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.
"We will continue testing the latest system," Putin said at a meeting with the leadership of the Ministry of Defense and representatives of the military-industrial complex. "It is necessary to establish mass production. We will assume that the decision on the serial production of this system has been made. As a matter of fact, it is practically organized."
Putin said Russia will continue testing the new Oreshnik missile system, "including in combat conditions."
"The tests were successful, I congratulate you on this. As already mentioned, we will continue these tests, including in combat conditions, depending on the situation and the nature of the security threats that are being created for Russia," Putin said.
"In addition to the Oreshnik system, several systems of this kind are currently in operation in Russia for further testing," Putin added.
Russia warned the U.S. 30 minutes before the launch of its Oreshnik missile against targets in Dnipro on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news outlet TASS.
The Ukrainian air force said it had tracked the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, along with six additional missiles, all targeting the Dnipro region. The U.S. would later specify the missile was not an ICBM, but instead a shorter-range IRBM.
The missiles were launched in about two hours, beginning at about 5 a.m. local time Thursday, and targeted businesses and critical infrastructure, but only the IRBM struck the city, Ukraine said. The six other missiles were shot down. There were no reports of casualties or significant damage, officials said.
The IRBM appeared to have been launched from the Astrakhan region, in Russia's southwest, Ukrainian military officials said. The distance from what Ukraine said was the launch point to the strike location in Dnipro is about 600 miles, a distance shorter than what an ICBM would be expected to travel.
The experimental Oreshnik missile was based on a Russian RS-26 Rubezh missile, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh confirmed Thursday during a briefing, without going into any other specific details. She also confirmed that the U.S. was notified "briefly" before the launch.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the Oreshnik missile launch Thursday during his evening address, saying a "new ballistic missile was used" and calling it "a clear and severe escalation in the scale and brutality of this war."
Putin, in remarks Thursday following the missile launch, said Russia has the right to use its weapons against the military facilities of countries employing their weapons against Russia.
The missile launch arrived amid concerns that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine could further escalate.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that Ukraine for the first time launched U.S.-made ATACMS missiles toward targets within Russia. An ammunition depot in the Bryansk region of Russia was struck, a U.S. official said.
The incident occurred days after U.S. President Joe Biden approved Ukraine's use of the long-range American-made MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System -- colloquially known as the ATACMS -- to hit targets in Russia's western Kursk region.
Zelenskyy would not confirm if Ukraine had used ATACMS to conduct a strike on an ammunition depot in the Bryansk region of Russia, but said Ukraine has ATACMS and "will use all of these" against Russia.
Hours after Russia said it had struck down several of the ATACMS, the Kremlin announced that Putin had updated the country's nuclear doctrine, a move that lowered the bar for Russia to respond with nuclear weapons. Russian ICBMs are capable of carrying nuclear warheads, but the IRBM fired on Thursday was not equipped with one.
(NEW YORK) -- Jussie Smollett's attorney said the actor was "harmed substantially" after he was found guilty of lying about a 2019 hate crime in an interview with "GMA3" following the overturning of his conviction.
The Illinois Supreme Court threw out the former "Empire" actor's conviction in a decision on Thursday after concluding that the state's prosecution was unfair due to an agreement that initially dropped the charges.
Smollett was first indicted on 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct for filing a false police report, though Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx agreed to drop the charges if he paid $10,000 and did community service. A special prosecutor later charged him again, leading to his trial and conviction.
In its decision on Thursday, the court found that the state could not bring a second prosecution against Smollett after the initial charges were dismissed, and that reneging on the agreement "would be arbitrary, unreasonable, fundamentally unfair, and a violation of the defendant's due process rights."
Tina Glandian, Smollett's attorney, told "GMA3" on Friday that they have been fighting the second prosecution from the start as "completely illegal."
"It violates numerous constitutional provisions," she said. "We've raised this numerous, numerous times before, various courts. And finally yesterday, the Supreme Court of Illinois agreed with us and said the second prosecution was barred because there was an agreement in place and the state is bound to honor its word."
The case began after the openly gay actor told police he was attacked by two men while walking on a street near his Chicago apartment early on Jan. 29, 2019. The attackers allegedly shouted racist and homophobic slurs before hitting him, pouring "an unknown chemical substance" on him and wrapping a rope around his neck.
Chicago police said Smollett's story of being the victim of an attack began to unravel when investigators tracked down two men, brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who they said were seen in a security video near where Smollett claimed he was assaulted and around the same time it supposedly occurred. The Osundairo brothers told police the actor paid them $3,500 to help him orchestrate and stage the crime.
A jury convicted Smollett in December 2021 on five of six felony counts of disorderly conduct stemming from filing a false police report and lying to police, who spent more than $130,000 investigating his allegations.
Dan Webb, who was appointed by a Cook County judge to continue looking into the case after the Cook County State's Attorney's Office initially dropped all charges against the actor, said he was "disappointed" in the court's decision and noted that the ruling "has nothing to do with Mr. Smollett's innocence."
"The Illinois Supreme Court did not find any error with the overwhelming evidence presented at trial that Mr. Smollett orchestrated a fake hate crime and reported it to the Chicago Police Department as a real hate crime, or the jury's unanimous verdict that Mr. Smollett was guilty of five counts of felony disorderly conduct," he said in a statement.
Glandian said Smollett continues to maintain his innocence and has "vehemently denied" any participation in a hoax.
"We do believe he didn't get a fair trial, that the jury didn't hear all the evidence that should have [been] heard, that things were improperly excluded, that the jury panel was not properly put together," she said. "The Supreme Court yesterday didn't get to that issue. They said legally this was invalid. It violated his due process and they, based on that, threw out the conviction. But we still maintain that he didn't receive a fair trial."
In the wake of the case, she said Smollett has been releasing music and "continued to do what he does best."
"I think hopefully, obviously this can only help matters because he was harmed substantially after everything that happened, and of course, the convictions and the sentence that was imposed," she said.
Webb said that despite the Illinois Supreme Court's decision, the city of Chicago is still able to pursue its pending civil lawsuit against Smollett in order to recoup the investigation costs.
Glandian said she hopes the city "does the right thing" and dismisses that case.
"He's incurred substantial legal fees. He spent six days in jail, all of which now has been said by the highest court in Illinois was completely unconstitutional," Glandian said. "So for the city now to further proceed, we'll see what they do. But hopefully they dismiss that case immediately."
Phyllis Fierro, Macchio, and children Daniel Macchio and Julia Macchio - Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images
The Karate Kid star Ralph Macchio was supported by his family at his recent Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony.
The actor received the honor on Wednesday and gave shout-outs to his wife, Phyllis, and their children, Julia and Daniel, during his heartfelt speech.
"My beautiful wife, my best friend, Phyllis, who simultaneously grounds and elevates me, I love you so much," Macchio said. "Our partnership in life is everything. None of this is happening without you. Thank you for choosing me ... life is all the richer to walk in lockstep with you. I am not here without you."
He called his children "my two heroes," adding, "I'm so proud of you guys. You make me way better than I am."
Macchio's star was placed adjacent to the one honoring his late Karate Kid co-star Pat Morita, who played Mr. Miyagi, the mentor to Macchio's character Daniel LaRusso in the 1984 film and its two sequels. Morita also returned for the fourth film, starring Hilary Swank.
Morita died in 2005 at age 73.
"To have this star placed right next to my acting partner from that film, the great Pat Morita, is so meaningful to me, so powerful to me," Macchio said Wednesday. "Our partnership is something I always described as a soulful magic."
AUSTIN – KXAN reports that virtual currency mining facilities within the state’s power grid region have to register with the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT). The facilities must provide information to the PUCT annually about the facility’s location, ownership, and demand for electricity. The rule was passed by the 88th Texas Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2023. It is aimed at giving the PUCT and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) a better awareness of the virtual currency miners operating around the state.
“It’s an important first step to get their hands around the potential issues,” said Dr. David Tuttle, a research associate and lecturer at the University of Texas Austin’s Energy Institute. Tuttle said these facilities can use a lot of energy. He noted how they can also quickly adjust their power consumption based on the wholesale price of electricity. “What they could do is radically reduce their load at the right times, and then their measurement for their peak load would be very low, and they would get a very low allocation of cost,” Tuttle said. “But the infrastructure cost would be still there to meet their peak load, and who would pay for it? Every other customer in ERCOT.”
HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton failed in every one of his attempts to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to halt President Joe Biden’s immigration policies. But the Texas Republican’s repeated losses might have actually helped clear the way for President-elect Donald Trump to roll out an immigration crackdown that includes mass deportations, detention of migrant families and more. The Texas losses underscore how little appetite the high court has for challenges to presidential authority on immigration matters. Some immigration law experts say the rulings against Texas during Biden’s term could make it more difficult for blue states to try and stop Trump’s crackdown in the courts. The Texas losses “dramatically softened the ground that President Trump has to work with,” said Leon Fresco, an immigration attorney based in D.C.
That is not to say that Democratic-led states and advocacy groups will not turn to the courts to challenge Trump’s immigration policies, as they did repeatedly during his first term, hampering his efforts to institute a travel ban, restrict asylum and force migrants to wait in Mexico while their cases were considered in the U.S. “I wouldn’t be surprised if litigation ends up being a smaller part of immigration advocacy in this administration,” Cabot said. “They’ve been signaling pretty strongly on these issues.” Paxton’s office did not respond to a request for comment. States could now have a harder time showing they have standing to sue in some cases after Texas’ unsuccessful bid to block Biden’s immigration enforcement priorities. When the Democrat took office, he limited U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation targets to just those seen as threats to national security, public safety or border security. Texas and Louisiana sued, arguing in part that the narrower scope would drive up their costs for law enforcement, education and health care, because the federal government was not deporting more immigrants.
AUSTIN (AP) — Texas’ education board voted Friday to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools, joining other Republican-led states that pushed this year to give religion a larger presence in public classrooms.
The curriculum adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, is optional for schools to adopt, but they will receive additional funding if they do so. The materials could appear in classroom as early as next school year.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has voiced support for the lesson plans, which were provided by the state’s education agency that oversees the more than 5 million students in Texas public schools.
Parents and teachers who opposed the curriculum said the lessons will alienate students of other faith backgrounds.
Supporters argued the Bible is a core feature of American history and that teaching it will enrich students’ learning.
The new Texas curriculum follows Republican-led efforts in neighboring states to give religion more of a presence in public schools. In Oklahoma, the state’s education chief has ordered a copy of the Bible in every classroom, while Louisiana wants to make all of the state’s public school classrooms post the Ten Commandments beginning next year.
With the new curriculum, Texas would be the first state to introduce Bible lessons in schools in this manner, according to Matthew Patrick Shaw, an assistant professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University.
The Texas Education Agency, which oversees public education for more than 5 million students statewide, created its own instruction materials after a law passed in 2023 by the GOP-controlled Legislature required the agency to do so. The lesson plans were publicly released this spring.
The material draws on lessons from Christianity more than any other religion in the proposed reading and language arts modules for kindergarten through fifth grade, which critics say would alienate students from different faith backgrounds and potentially violate the First Amendment.
“This curriculum is not age-appropriate or subject matter appropriate in the way that it presents these Bible stories,” said Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.
Children who would read the material, she said, “are simply too young to tell the difference between what is a faith claim and what is a matter of fact.”
More than 100 people testified at a board meeting this week that rung with emotion from parents, teachers and advocates. Supporters of the curriculum argued that the Bible is a core feature of American history and teaching it will enrich students’ learning.
“It is said that there are close to 300 common-day phrases that actually come from the Bible,” said Mary Castle, director of government relations for Texas Values, a right-leaning advocacy group. “So students will benefit from being able to understand a lot of these references that are in literature and have a way to be able to comprehend them.”
A narrow early vote
The 15-member board consists of 11 Republicans and four Democrats. It signaled support for the materials in a 8-7 preliminary vote on Wednesday.
One of the board members is a Republican who was appointed to the board just weeks ago by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to temporarily fill a vacant seat. Days after that appointment, a Democrat who ran unopposed was elected to fill that same board seat starting next year.
Abbott has publicly supported the instruction materials.
Whether the lesson plans will be considered constitutional is up in the air if the curriculum passes, Shaw said.
“The question is how is Texas going to frame what is done here to avoid the establishment question or tackle it head-on,” he said.
Bringing religion into schools
Texas’ plans to implement Biblical teachings in public school lesson plans is the latest effort by Republican-controlled states to bring religion into the classroom.
In Louisiana, a law to place the Ten Commandments in all public classrooms was blocked by a federal judge earlier this month. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed the bill into law in June, prompting a group of Louisiana public school parents of different faiths to sue.
In Oklahoma, the state’s top education official has tried to incorporate the Bible into lesson plans for children in fifth through 12th grades. A group of teachers and parents recently filed a lawsuit to stop the Republican state superintendent’s plan and his efforts to spend $3 million to purchase Bibles for public schools.
Two very different, very anticipated movies are headed into theaters Friday, and some prognosticators say it could lead to a new "Barbenheimer" box office bonanza.
Wicked and Gladiator II are Friday's big openers, and with both films getting strong reviews — and both with impressive sneak preview numbers — it's reminiscent of when Barbie and Oppenheimer's very different double bill led to a $235.5 million worldwide opening weekend in July 2023.
The Hollywood Reporter says Wicked made $11 million from showings on Thursday, but other special showings throughout the week bumped that take to $19.2 million in the U.S. before Friday's official opening day.
Gladiator II,Ridley Scott's follow-up to his 2000 Oscar winner, made $6.5 million in the U.S. ahead of Friday's opening day. Unlike Wicked, however, it opened up overseas first, and its global take already stands at nearly $99 million, according to BoxOfficeMojo.
