Month: April 2024

Three people were killed, including the suspected gunman, after a shooting inside a Las Vegas-area law office on Monday.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill confirmed that the shooting occurred around 10 a.m. at the fifth-floor law offices of Prince Law Group in Summerlin, located about 10 miles west of the Las Vegas Strip. The firm, located at the City National Bank Building at 10801 W. Charleston Blvd. near Pavilion Center Drive, handles personal injury, insurance and commercial law.

Sheriff McMahill said at a news conference that a male and a female were killed, and the gunman was believed to have killed himself. He added that the motive for the shooting and the relationship between the victims and the shooter are under investigation: “We believe the suspect is deceased…there is no further threat to the community. The suspect was not killed by my police. We believe he took his own life. We have a theory at this point, but I cannot release any of that information until we’ve confirmed that information.” McMahills said that hundreds of people were evacuated from the building, adding there were businesses adjacent to the law office where the shooting occurred.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Robert Eglet, a former law partner in the firm, identified the deceased male victim as Dennis Prince. Eglet called Prince “one of the best trial lawyers in the state” and said he had known the attorney for approximately 30 years: “It’s a real loss to the community. It’s awful. It’s a loss to our profession. … This is every family’s nightmare, something like this happening. I’m still trying to put my arms around the fact that this actually happened.”

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ABC News reports that a judge has denied former President Donald Trump’s last-minute attempt Monday to delay his criminal trial in New York and move the case out of Manhattan. The decision comes just one week before jury selection was set to start, with Judge Lizbeth Gonzalez denying it without explanation in a one-sentence order.

Trump’s attorneys had asked an intermediary appellate court to stay the April 15 trial date, arguing overwhelming pretrial publicity made it impossible to find a fair and impartial jury even with a rigorous jury selection process. In a brief argument before the Appellate Division First Department, the defense suggested that too many people in Manhattan have a negative opinion of Trump, with attorney Emil Bove arguing “in terms of prejudicial pretrial publicity in this county, this case stands alone,” adding there had not been a case with so much attention since the 1999 police killing of Amadou Diallo. Bove said: “when bias against the defendant is this engrained, has taken root to this extent, voir dire cannot be trusted to clear that up. Jury selection cannot proceed in a fair manner next week in this county.”

Steven Wu, the prosecutor with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, said there’s nothing to suggest potential jurors in Manhattan were “uniquely susceptible” to negative pretrial publicity since Trump is a well-known figure.  Said Wu: “the idea of transferring venue here is misguided. The mere fact that they know about this case is not an indication of bias … This is the defendant coming into this argument with unclean hands.”

Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records after being indicted by a Manhattan grand jury in connection with a hush money payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels just days before the 2016 presidential election.  The former President has denied all wrongdoing, pleading not guilty last April.

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According to the Federal Aviation Administration, a Southwest Airlines flight had to make an
emergency landing Sunday morning after the engine cover detached during takeoff, striking the wing flap. The Boeing 737-800 aircraft was scheduled to fly from Denver to William P. Hobby Airport in Houston. (per ABC News).

Southwest Airlines Flight 3695 returned safely to Denver International Airport around 8:15 a.m. local time on Sunday and was towed to the gate. The FAA said on Sunday that it will launch an investigation of the engine cowling incident (the cowling is the protective cover over the plane’s engine).

In a statement, Southwest Airlines said the flight “landed safely after experiencing a mechanical issue.” Customers were rebooked on other flights, and maintenance teams are now inspecting the plane, the airline said.

This is the second incident in recent days involving a reported malfunctioning of equipment on a Southwest Airlines flight. The FAA is investigating a reported engine fire before takeoff at Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport on Thursday.

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According to the Department of Justice, a suspect was arrested on Sunday in connection with a fire at Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Vermont office and is being investigated as arson. Per NBC News, Shant Soghomonian, 35, also known as Michael Soghomonian, previously of Northridge, California, was arrested Sunday on charges of using fire to damage a building in Burlington, Vermont, where an office for Sanders is located.

The DOJ said in a press release that Soghomonian allegedly entered the building Friday morning and went to Sanders’ Burlington third floor office location. Security video shows the suspect spraying a liquid near the outer door of the office before lighting the area with a hand-held lighter, starting the fire. The resulting fire damaged the outside of the door to Sanders’ office and surrounding areas and caused sprinklers in the building to discharge on multiple floors, with noone physically injured.

Soghomonian’s initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin J. Doyle has not yet been scheduled. If convicted, Soghomonian could face between five and 20 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine, according to the Justice Department.

Sanders’ office shared the following statement: “I am deeply grateful to the swift, professional, coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal law enforcement in response to the fire at my Vermont office on Friday. I am also thankful that none of the many people who were in the office building at the time of the fire were injured. I appreciate the outpouring of support and well-wishes for me and my staff. We are proud to be able to continue to serve Vermonters during these challenging times.”

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On Thursday, a Georgia judge upheld the criminal indictment against former President Donald Trump, rejecting Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 state election interference case on the grounds they were protected under the First Amendment (per CNN.) Trump and 18 of his supporters pleaded not guilty in August 2023 to all charges alleging interference in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia; four of the co-defendants have since accepted plea deals in exchange for their willingness to testify against the other defendants.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said in his 14-page ruling that their right to protest the results of the 2020 presidential election did not protect them from the charges that District Attorney Fani Willis’s office brought.  In his order denying the motion, McAfree argued that “even core political speech addressing matters of public concern is not impenetrable from prosecution if allegedly used to further criminal activity.” The judge wrote that “the Court finds these vital constitutional protections do not reach the actions and statements alleged by the State,” and their motions to dismiss are “therefore denied.”

Trump’s attorney Steve Sadow argued at a hearing held last week in Fulton County that the former president’s statements regarding the 2020 presidential election are “the zenith of protected speech” and that even false statements are protected under the First Amendment. However, McAfee determined the defendants had not presented “any authority that the speech and conduct alleged is protected political speech.”

In response to the ruling, Sadow in a statement wrote, “President Trump and other defendants respectfully disagree with Judge McAfee’s order and will continue to evaluate their options regarding the First Amendment challenges. It is significant that the court’s ruling made clear that defendants were not foreclosed from again raising their ‘as-applied challenges at the appropriate time after the establishment of a factual record …’”

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As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, the centrist political group No Labels announced on Thursday that they will not run a third-party “unity” ticket against Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election.

In a statement, the group said they were unable to find a candidate that had a credible path to winning, “so the responsible course of action is for us to stand down. We will remain engaged over the next year during what is likely to be the most divisive presidential election of our lifetimes and will promote dialogue around major policy challenges and call out both sides when they speak and act in bad faith.”

No Labels said Thursday that “Americans remain more open to an independent presidential run and hungrier for unifying national leadership than ever before. Big ideas are not new for us. We have been working since 2010 to organize citizens across America and members of Congress through the Problem Solvers Caucus, which we created to push back on the extremes in our politics and push forward solutions to America’s biggest problems. That work is more important now than ever. Big ideas are not new for us …we have been working since 2010 to organize citizens across America and members of Congress through the Problem Solvers Caucus, which we created to push back on the extremes in our politics and push forward solutions to America’s biggest problems. That work is more important now than ever – for now, suffice it to say that this movement is not done, in fact, it is just beginning.”

Potential candidates previously considered for a No Labels ticket included Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, and Larry Hogan, former Republican governor of Maryland. Hogan ultimately decided to run for the U.S. Senate in Maryland. Before announcing its decision to abandon the plans for a third-party candidate, No Labels said it qualified on the ballot in 21 states, which is far more than independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with only one state so far confirming him qualified for the ballot.

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