Saturday, Apr 27th
Last update06:09:34 AM GMT
Domestic Glance
More than 500,000 workers at the United States Postal Service (USPS) will be handling billions of deliveries through the holidays. For hundreds of them, this may be their last Christmas at their current mail sorting facility and workers are warning the impact on consumers will be severe.
The appointee as postmaster general under Donald Trump, Louis DeJoy, is currently implementing a 10-year “Delivering for America” austerity plan that will slash jobs and close sorting centers.
On Wednesday Kevin Stitt, Oklahoma’s governor, signed an executive order in effect banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at agencies and public colleges and universities across the state.
The order prohibits them from using state funds, property or resources towards DEI initiatives and orders them to dismiss “non-critical personnel”. It is effective immediately, but institutions are expected to comply no later than 31 May 2024.
The 25 public colleges and universities in the state also have to provide reports that detail the expenditure of their former DEI initiatives and job positions. Stitt said he is “implementing greater protections for Oklahomans and their tax dollars”. But according to local news outlet KFOR, only “around $10.2m was spent on DEI programs in the past decade. It accounted for three-tenths of one percent of all higher education spending.”
An Alabama pastor and mayor died by suicide Friday after a conservative blog wrote a story about him wearing women’s clothing as a “hobby.”
The conservative news blog 1819 News published the social media accounts of F.L. “Bubba” Copeland, who was the mayor of Smiths Station, Alabama, and the pastor at First Baptist Church in Phenix City, where Copeland goes by Brittini Blaire Summerlin and refers to himself as a “Transitioning Transgender Curvy Girl.” Copeland posted on Reddit as his alter ego and had a private Instagram page, according to the news blog.
Authorities in Tennessee were searching on Sunday for the estranged son of Nashville’s police chief as the suspect in the shooting of two police officers outside a Dollar General store.
Officers in La Vergne, a city about 20 miles (32km) south-east of Nashville, were investigating a stolen vehicle outside the store on Saturday afternoon when they struggled with the suspect, who pulled a handgun and shot them, said the local police chief, Christopher Moews.
Investigators identified the suspect as John C Drake Jr, 38, who is the son of Nashville’s metropolitan police department chief, John Drake.
One of the officers was shot twice, in the groin and right forearm, while the other officer was hit in the rear left shoulder. Both were taken to Nashville’s Vanderbilt University medical center.
The FBI has interviewed several individuals who have alleged they were abused by members of the People of Praise (PoP), a secretive Christian sect that counts conservative supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett as a lifelong member, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The individuals were contacted following a years-long effort by a group called PoP Survivors, who have called for the South Bend-based sect to be investigated for leaders’ handling of sexual abuse allegations. The body, which has 54 members, has alleged that abuse claims were routinely mishandled or covered up for decades in order to protect the close-knit faith group.
It is not clear whether the FBI has launched a formal investigation into the PoP.
The Biden administration said Wednesday it would forgive $37 million in debt for more than 1,200 former students at the University of Phoenix, a controversial for-profit college that the Education Department alleges misled students for years with false advertising.
A national ad campaign promised prospective students that attending the school would lead them to receive preferential hiring treatment at a number of high-profile companies, including Microsoft and Adobe.
A gunman “ambushed” a Los Angeles county sheriff’s department deputy in his patrol car Saturday night, shooting him to death in a particularly brazen attack, authorities said.
The deputy, Ryan Clinkunbroomer, was found unconscious in his vehicle near the intersection of Sierra Highway and Avenue Q in Palmdale, California. A passerby discovered the mortally wounded deputy and then alerted authorities.
Clinkunbroomer died after being taken to an area hospital, the Associated Press reported. “Despite the medical staff’s best efforts to save our deputy’s life, regrettably he succumbed to his injuries,” sheriff Robert Luna said, according to the AP.
Clinkunbroomer became engaged only four days before he was slain. His survivors include his betrothed, his parents and his grandparents.
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