Pennsylvania
Rapper Meek Mill freed after high court order
PHILADELPHIA — Rapper Meek Mill walked out of prison Tuesday after Pennsylvania’s highest court ordered him freed while he appeals decade-old gun and drug convictions.
Following a five-month campaign by his supporters to get him out, the state Supreme Court directed a Philadelphia judge who had jailed him to immediately issue an order releasing him on unsecured bail.
Mill was sentenced in November to two to four years in prison for probation violations.
A team of lawyers and public relations consultants had waged an all-out battle to get him freed, leveling fierce criticism at the judge as a stream of high-powered figures and celebrities visited him in jail outside Philadelphia, including actor Kevin Hart just hours before the Supreme Court ruling.
People are also reading…
Texas
Two Dallas officers shot outside store
DALLAS — Two Dallas police officers were critically wounded in a shooting Tuesday outside a home improvement store, authorities said.
Police Chief U. Renee Hall said a store loss-prevention officer also was shot in the incident about 4:15 p.m. outside a Home Depot in northern Dallas.
In a tweet about the shooting Tuesday evening, the Dallas Police Department said the officers were critically wounded. During a news conference Tuesday night at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, Hall declined to give an update on their conditions, citing consideration for the privacy of the officers’ families.
The two police officers went to the store to assist an off-duty police officer with taking a man into custody .
California
Professor who jeered Bush not punished
FRESNO — A California State University, Fresno professor who called Barbara Bush “an amazing racist” and cheered her death will not be punished, the president of the university announced Tuesday.
Randa Jarrar was acting as a private citizen using her personal Twitter account so her remarks didn’t violate any California State University or campus policies, Fresno State President Joseph Castro wrote in announcing the results of a review.
“Her comments, although disgraceful, are protected free speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” Castro wrote. “Our duty as Americans and educators is to promote a free exchange of diverse views, even if we disagree with them.”
The English professor provoked a storm of criticism last week with her tweets following the death of the former first lady. “Barbara Bush was a generous and smart and amazing racist who, along with her husband, raised a war criminal,” wrote Jarrar, who added that she was “happy the witch is dead.”
District of Columbia
Punishment study
shows racial imbalance
WASHINGTON — Black students are suspended from school, expelled and referred to law enforcement much more frequently than their white peers and the disparities are growing, according to a federal report released Tuesday.
The report released by the Education Department is likely to add to an already tense national debate about what causes such racial disparities. Civil rights groups believe that racial bias is at play and insist that federal protections are necessary. Some experts counter that forcing schools to adopt milder disciplinary practices makes classrooms unsafe.
The data show that while black students represented 15 percent of all enrolled students in 2015-2016, they accounted for 31 percent of children referred to police or arrested. The disparity is 5 percentage points higher than in 2013-14, when such data was last collected. Two years ago, white students made up 49 percent of all students but represented 36 percent of students who were referred to the police.
High court divided
over Texas redistricting
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court appeared divided Tuesday over Texas’ appeal to preserve congressional and legislative districts that a lower court struck down as racially discriminatory.
The justices heard arguments in the latest round of court action over Texas electoral districts that began in 2011.
At issue are two congressional districts and statehouse districts in four counties, and what the challengers say are efforts by Texas Republicans who control the state government to restrain the political influence of a growing Hispanic and African-American population.
The liberal justices seemed favorable to minority voters and civil rights groups that sued over the districts. The court’s conservatives appeared to lean toward the state, which also has the support of the Trump administration. Justice Anthony Kennedy said nothing to indicate where his potentially decisive vote would fall.
California
US sailor accused
of stealing grenades
SAN DIEGO — A sailor was arrested in Illinois on Tuesday on charges he stole 20 hand grenades from a San Diego-based Navy destroyer, authorities said.
Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Aaron Booker, 31, of Waukegan, Illinois, was taken into custody in Great Lakes by U.S. Navy criminal investigators and was expected to be returned to California. It was unclear whether he had an attorney.
Booker allegedly stole the concussion grenades while he was assigned to the Weapons Department aboard the USS Pinckney, prosecutors said.
Wire reports
