In Brief: August 27, 2020

17-year-old arrested after 2 killed during unrest in Kenosha

KENOSHA, Wis. — A white, 17-year-old police admirer was arrested Wednesday after two people were shot to death during a third straight night of protests in Kenosha over the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake.

Kyle Rittenhouse, of Antioch, Illinois, about 15 miles from Kenosha, was taken into custody in Illinois on suspicion of first-degree intentional homicide in the attack Tuesday that was largely captured on cellphone video. The shooting left a third person wounded.

“I just killed somebody,” the gunman, carrying a semi-automatic rifle, could be heard saying at one point during the rampage that erupted just before midnight in the city of 100,000 people midway between Milwaukee and Chicago.

In the wake of the killings, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers authorized the deployment of 500 members of the National Guard to Kenosha, doubling the number of troops. The governor’s office said he is working with other states to bring in additional National Guard members and law officers. Authorities also announced a 7 p.m. curfew, an hour earlier than the night before.

“A senseless tragedy like this cannot happen again,” the governor, a Democrat, said in a statement. “I again ask those who choose to exercise their First Amendment rights please do so peacefully and safely, as so many did last night. I also ask the individuals who are not there to exercise those rights to please stay home and let local first responders, law enforcement and members of the Wisconsin National Guard do their jobs.”

From wire sources

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US officials: No signs of foreign targeting of mail-in vote

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials said Wednesday there has been no intelligence to suggest that foreign countries are working to undermine mail-in voting and no signs of any coordinated effort to commit widespread fraud through the vote-by-mail process, despite numerous claims made by President Donald Trump in recent months.

The officials at multiple federal agencies stopped short of directly contradicting Trump, but their comments made it clear they had not seen evidence to support the president’s statements that voter fraud will be rampant in the upcoming election and that the expected surge in mail-in ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic leaves November’s presidential election especially vulnerable to foreign interference.

Trump, for instance, tweeted July 30 that mail-in voting was proving to be a “catastrophic disaster” and added: “The Dems talk of foreign influence in voting, but they know that Mail-In Voting is an easy way for foreign countries to enter the race. Even beyond that, there’s no accurate count!”

But a senior official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, asked on a conference call with reporters Wednesday about the threat of foreign countries manufacturing their own ballots or amplifying disinformation about the integrity of the vote-by-mail process, said there was no information or intelligence that any adversary was “engaged in any kind of activity to undermine any part of the mail-in vote.”

A senior FBI official said officials had not seen to date a coordinated, nationwide effort to corrupt mail-in voting. The official also said, given the diffuse and varied election systems across the country, it would be “extraordinarily difficult” to tamper with results in a measurable way. But the official said the FBI remained committed to investigating any fraud that emerges.

Typhoon barrels into N. Korea after causing damage in South

SEOUL, South Korea — A typhoon that grazed South Korea, ripping off roofs and knocking out power to more than 1,600 households, made landfall in North Korea early Thursday. South Korean authorities said there were no immediate reports of casualties, and North Korea has not reported any damages.

Packing maximum winds of 133 kilometers (83 miles) per hour, Typhoon Bavi was barreling north and just 70 kilometers (43 miles) southwest of the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, after passing over a western coastal region known for fishing and other industries, South Korea’s weather agency said.

South Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety said there was no immediate reports of casualties, despite damage to buildings, walls, roads and other structures. The Korea Meteorological Administration warned that strong winds will continue in the Seoul capital area and the country’s central region through the morning.

Power was knocked out in 1,633 South Korean homes, including 887 on the southern resort island of Jeju, which was the first part of the country to be hit by the typhoon on Wednesday, and more than 600 in mainland regions. By 6 a.m., power had been restored to most of the homes, but at least 96 households in the island county of Sinan remained without electricity.

More than 430 domestic flights in and out of Jeju and the southern mainland city of Busan were canceled as of Thursday morning. South Korean authorities also halted some railroad services, shut down public parks and sea bridges and moved hundreds of fishing boats and passenger vessels to safety.

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Only Native American on federal death row executed

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — The only Native American on federal death row was put to death Wednesday, despite objections from many Navajo leaders who had urged President Donald Trump to halt the execution on the grounds it would violate tribal culture and sovereignty.

With the execution of Lezmond Mitchell for the grisly slayings of a 9-year-old and her grandmother, the federal government under the pro-death penalty president has now carried out more executions in 2020 than it had in the previous 56 years combined.

Asked by a prison official if he had any last words for victims’ family members and other witnesses behind glass at the death chamber, Mitchell casually responded, “No, I’m good.”

Moments later, prison officials began the lethal injection of pentobarbital inside the small, pale-green death chamber at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Mitchell lay flat on his back, his glasses still on and a medical mask across his face as the lethal drug flowed to IVs in his hands and forearms. His chest heaved and his thumb tapped the gurney, as his breathing appeared more labored and his stomach area began to throb. About 10 minutes later, Mitchell no longer appeared to move and his partially tattooed hands turned pale.

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New federal virus testing advice sparks criticism, confusion

NEW YORK — U.S. health officials sparked criticism and confusion after posting guidelines on coronavirus testing from the White House task force that run counter to what scientists say is necessary to control the pandemic.

The new guidance says it’s not necessary for people who have been in close contact with infected people, but don’t feel sick, to get tested. It was posted earlier this week on the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC previously had advised local health departments to test people who have been within 6 feet of an infected person for more than 15 minutes.

Across the country, public health experts called the change bizarre. They noted that testing contacts of infected people is a core element of public health efforts to keep outbreaks in check, and that a large percentage of infected people — the CDC has said as many as 40% — exhibit no symptoms.

“The recommendation not to test asymptomatic people who likely have been exposed is not in accord with the science,” said John Auerbach, president of Trust for America’s Health, a nonprofit that works to improve U.S. preparedness against disease.

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Central Park monument honors women’s rights pioneers

NEW YORK — A bronze statue depicting women’s rights pioneers Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony was unveiled in Central Park on Wednesday, becoming the 167-year-old park’s first monument honoring historical heroines, as opposed to fictional female characters like Alice in Wonderland and Shakespeare’s Juliet.

The 14-foot-tall monument to the three 19th century advocates, dedicated on the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the amendment that enshrined women’s right to vote in the U.S. Constitution, joins prominent men including Hans Christian Andersen, Simón Bolívar and Alexander Hamilton who are honored with busts and statues in the 840-acre (340-hectare) New York City park.

“This is a collection of statues of great men who accomplished great things, and the fact that there were no statues of women seemed to mean that the accomplishments of women were meaningless, certainly not worthy of a statue,” sculptor Meredith Bergmann said. “So it’s long overdue, and it’s wonderful that these three great and inspiring and incredibly hardworking activist women are here in Central Park and they can inspire us to continue to fight for equal rights, for fairness and for justice for women, for minority groups, for people of color, for everyone now.”

The monument shows Truth and Stanton seated at a small table as if discussing a point of strategy, with Anthony standing between them. The commission from Monumental Women, a nonprofit that formed in 2014 to raise funds for a suffragist statue in Central Park, originally included just Stanton and Anthony, two white leaders of the fight for women’s equality. Truth, a Black woman who escaped slavery and went on to campaign for abolition as well as women’s rights, was a late addition.

Pam Elam, board president of Monumental Women, said at the dedication ceremony attended by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and elected officials including Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney that a knowledge of women’s history “helps us understand the context of the struggle for equality as well as the continuum of the fight for social change.” She added, “We rethink the past to reshape the future.”