New York man charged with cyberstalking a family member of killed UnitedHealthcare CEO

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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A New York man has been charged with cyberstalking a family member of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, allegedly leaving threatening voicemails that expressed glee about Thompson’s killing within hours of the fatal shooting, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

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Shane Daley, 40, is accused of placing multiple calls to Thompson’s family member after the shooting, justifying the killing and saying that the person deserved to die in a similar manner, according to a criminal complaint.

Daley, of Galway, New York, a small town north of Albany, was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon. Information on whether Daley had an attorney was not immediately available in online federal court records.

In a statement, Acting United States Attorney John A. Sarcone said that “Brian Thompson was gunned down in midtown Manhattan. Daley, as alleged, gleefully welcomed this tragedy and did all that he could to increase the Thompson family’s pain and suffering.”

FILE – Members of the New York police crime scene unit photograph bullets lying on the sidewalk as they investigate the scene outside the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan where Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot, Dec. 4, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah, File)

Thompson was fatally shot outside a hotel in New York City in December by a man who prosecutors said was angered over what he viewed as corporate greed. The suspect, Luigi Mangione, has pleaded not guilty.

6 people dead after a truck crashed into a van carrying members of an Amish group in Michigan

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CARO, Mich. (AP) — A pickup truck went through a stop sign in rural Michigan and crashed into a van carrying members of an Amish community, killing at least six people, authorities said.

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The crash occurred Tuesday afternoon in Tuscola County’s Gilford Township, 100 miles north of Detroit.

Thirteen people were in the two vehicles, including 10 in the van, the sheriff’s office said.

“Multiple passengers were ejected from the van and the pickup,” the sheriff’s office said on Facebook. “At this time there are 6 confirmed fatalities and the condition of the additional patients is unknown.”

Members of a local Amish community were in the van, Undersheriff Robert Baxter said Wednesday.

“They had a paid driver in the van,” he told The Associated Press. “I’m not sure where they were headed or where they were coming from. They’re county residents.”

Baxter said seven people were taken to a hospital. He had no update on their conditions.

The Amish generally follow basic Christian beliefs while maintaining a degree of separation from common society. They typically rely on horse-drawn buggies for transportation and do not operate their own cars or trucks but will ride with in vehicles driven by people who are not Amish.

About 61% of North America’s Amish population lives in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana, according to Elizabethtown College, though Michigan also has a relatively large share.

Trump administration ordered to restore some withheld grant funding to UCLA

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By JOCELYN GECKER, Associated Press

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore millions of dollars in National Science Foundation grants it has withheld from the University of California, Los Angeles, saying they were made in violation of her earlier court ruling.

U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin ruled late Tuesday that the NSF must reinstate the research grants that were suspended for reasons she had already ruled “arbitrary and capricious,” and gave the administration until Aug. 19 to show compliance or explain why it hasn’t restored the money.

It was not immediately clear how much funding could be returned to UCLA. The school’s chancellor said last week that the Trump administration has pulled $584 million in federal grants from various federal agencies. The judge’s ruling applies specifically to NSF grants.

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UCLA’s money as been frozen as part of a wider pressure campaign targeting universities that Trump says are out of step with his political agenda.

University of California researchers challenged the cuts as “abrupt and unexplained” and won a preliminary injunction in June from Lin, who ruled that the NSF and other agencies could not terminate grant funding without specifically explaining why.

But on July 30, the NSF sent out a new round of letters that Lin described as “en masse, form letter funding cuts.” One said the awards “no longer effectuate program goals or agency priorities.” Another cited allegations of racism, antisemitism and policies around transgender athletes at UCLA. It did not elaborate.

The administration argued in a Tuesday hearing that the UCLA funding cuts were “suspensions” rather than “terminations.” Lin dismissed this as semantics.

“NSF’s indefinite suspensions differ from a termination in name only,” and the reasons the agency provided are based on “the same type of deficient explanations as the original terminations,” she ruled.

The university issued a brief statement praising the decision, saying that “restoration of National Science Foundation funds is critical to research the University of California performs on behalf of California and the Nation.”

UCLA also faces a Trump administration demand to pay $1 billion to settle antisemitism allegations. UCLA became the first public university to be targeted as the administration seeks to dominate academic institutions around the country.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

A tale of two Chief Pams: Federal takeover brings confusion over command of DC police

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By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Pam Bondi is effectively in charge of the police department in Washington, D.C. — so says the White House. But the city’s police force already has a Pam at the helm — Chief Pamela Smith — and she says she only reports to the mayor.

D.C. and federal officials say they are working together after President Donald Trump announced he was placing the police department in the nation’s capital under federal control to crack down on violent crime. But despite the unified tone, the unusual arrangement is raising questions about who gets to make decisions about D.C. police resources, personnel and policy and — in the event of a disagreement — which Pam gets the final say.

According to D.C. leaders, the attorney general can request services of the mayor, but nothing has changed when it comes to the chain of command and the department’s funding. And when pressed Tuesday about who she reports to in light of the federal takeover, Smith said: “I answer to Mayor Muriel Bowser.”

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“Let us not have any controversy with that, OK?” Smith told reporters outside the Justice Department after meeting with Bondi and other federal officials. “Because I know people want to build upon and create division. We’re here to work together with our federal partners, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Yet hours later, the White House struck a different tone, suggesting the ultimate authority lies in the hands of Bondi and Terry Cole, the Drug Enforcement Administration director whom Trump has tapped to serve as interim federal administrator of the police force.

“We plan to work with the Metropolitan Police Department, but ultimately, the chain of command is as such: the president of the United States, the attorney general of the United States, our DEA administrator, Terry Cole, who is now serving head of the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. Cole is working with Smith “to ensure that law enforcement officers are allowed to do their jobs in the city,” Leavitt said.

Justice Department officials have not answered questions about whether the Trump administration believes it has the authority to make decisions about D.C. personnel, and whether the attorney general has issued any new orders for the police force.

Smith took on her role as police chief in the nation’s capital in November 2023 and briefly served in other units, including the homeland security bureau. She also led the police force’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and had served as chief of the United States Park Police after a long career in that federal force.

The law allows Trump to take over the D.C. police for up to 30 days, though the White House has suggested it could last longer as authorities later “reevaluate and reassess.” Extending federal control past that time would require congressional approval, something likely tough to achieve in the face of Democratic resistance.

Hundreds of federal officers from the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other agencies have been doing overnight patrols in Washington since last week. Cole said federal officers would be “embedded” with D.C. police to patrol the streets, but did not offer specific details on what would change in the chain of command. Even so, he described Smith as “very accommodating” and said she was sharing ideas, giving him an office at police headquarters, and introducing him to staff.

“We have tremendous cooperation, tremendous intel sharing, and what’s most encouraging, the police are looking forward to doing their job again,” Cole said in a Fox News interview.