Seattle will be ringing in 2016 with new gun control legislation.
On Tuesday, King County Superior Court Judge Palmer Robinson ruled that a new tax on guns and ammo would go into effect on Jan. 1, in a case gun rights activists brought against the city. Robinson’s decision aligned with City Council’s unanimous vote in August, approving a tariff of $25 per gun and 2 or 5 cents per round of ammunition for sellers.
In the eyes of NRA members — the plaintiffs, alongside the Second Amendment Foundation and the National Shooting Sports Foundation — Robinson’s ruling flouted the law. But during the case’s hearing, a lawyer defending the city testified that the levy is perfectly kosher. The key is the difference between taxation and regulation, the Seattle Times reported.
Attorney William Abrams stated, “Taxation is to raise revenue, and cities have broad powers to raise revenue through a…
A Tennessee woman is charged with attempted first-degree murder for what investigators say was a failed abortion attempt.
The Daily News Journal reports Anna Yocca, of Murfreesboro, about 33 miles southeast of Nashville, was arrested on Wednesday. She is jailed on a $200,000 bond.
An emergency room doctor calls it as “five-dollar insanity.” A rehab director says it’s the “devil’s drug.”
On the street, it’s known as flakka — a synthetic crystal imported from China that is wreaking havoc in South Florida and threatening to spread its misery and profits across the country.
It’s cheap, crazily addictive and terrifying. A single dose smoked, swallowed or snorted can give a user a potent but fleeting rush — or turn them into a paranoid zombie with superhuman strength and off-the-charts vital signs.
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Stephanie told NBC News she jumped off a bridge after her first experience with flakka. She is now in rehab. Courtesy of Stephanie
In what is a perceived legal blow for prosecutors, the jury was hung and the judge declared a mistrial in the trial of Baltimore police officer William Porter in the case of Freddie Gray’s death after sustaining injuries while in custody.
Porter was charged with manslaughter, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office in the April 19th death of Gray, who died a week after his neck was broken during a ride in the back of a police van. Gray’s death and the subsequent unrest in Baltimore brought to the fore long simmering tensions in Baltimore and across the nation over socioeconomic disparity and the relationship between law enforcement and the minority communities they serve.
Prosecutors considered Porter’s case key to help strengthening the case against van driver Caesar Goodson, Jr. It was also seen as a signal of how the trials of the other five officers could go.
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An undated image of Freddie Gray provided by the family’s attorney via WBAL
There are at least 555 reasons to ask whether American children are safer from gun violence today than they were three years ago, when the unthinkable happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
That’s how many kids under the age of 12 have died from gunshots — both intentional and accidental — since Adam Lanza stormed into the school in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012, and shot dead 20 children and six staff members, according to an NBC News analysis.
A man charged in the fatal shooting of two police officers during a traffic stop in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was found unresponsive in his cell Friday night, officials said.
Marvin Banks, 29, was alone in an isolation cell when officers found him, the Forrest County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. EMTs tried performing CPR before Banks was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead at 7:40 p.m. local time (8:40 p.m. ET), the sheriff’s office said.
Autopsy results showed Banks died of severe heart disease, but toxicology tests are still pending, Forrest County Coroner Butch Benedict said Saturday, according to NBC affiliate WDAM. Benedict said Banks’ body showed no signs of trauma.
With 14 reported killed so far, and another 14 or so wounded, Wednesday’s gun attack at Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California goes down as one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern American history — and the worst since 27 were killed in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.
Besides Newtown, only four other attacks have ended with larger body counts.
Another aspect that makes the Inland Regional Center shooting unique is the number of attackers. The vast majority of mass shootings have been carried out by lone gunmen; two people are suspected in San Bernardino.
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Students visit a makeshift memorial set up on the campus of Virginia Tech for the students and faculty that lost their lives in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history on April 18, 2007 in Blacksburg, Va. Evan Vucci / AP File
Their jobs were to keep their friends and neighbors healthy. They died together on Wednesday, shot at an office holiday party, allegedly by a co-worker.
Twelve of the fourteen victims were San Bernardino County employees, San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said at a press conference Thursday evening.
Many of those killed in the assault on the Inland Regional Center worked for the health department, making their living inspecting restaurants, pools, water treatment systems and other public facilities.
Authorities sought on Thursday to determine if a couple accused of killing 14 people in a mass shooting at a workplace holiday party in Southern California had links to Islamic militant groups abroad, U.S. officials familiar with the investigation said.
Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, who had a 6-month-old daughter together, were killed in a shootout with police after Wednesday’s massacre at the Inland Regional Center social services agency in the city of San Bernardino.
Officials in Washington familiar with the investigation said so far there was no hard evidence of a direct connection between the shooters and any militant group abroad.
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Syed Rizwan Farook in a photo he posted on a muslim dating website. REX Shutterstock
A majority black jury will ultimately decide if William Porter can be found guilty in the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, a black man who died after a “rough ride” in a police van in April.
Court officials announced Wednesday that eight black and four white jurors will decide the fate of Porter, one of six Baltimore police officers charged in Gray’s death. Porter, who is black, has been charged with manslaughter, second-degree assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment.
A lot is hinging on the outcome of the case. Legal experts claim an acquittal could set the tone for the other five trials. Prosecutors also seek to use Porter as a material witness against at least two other officers.
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The Washington Post via Getty Images
A handful of protesters gather outside the Baltimore Circuit Court on Nov. 30.
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James' World 2 