Nashville boy, 12, killed in fireworks incident: police
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Reuters) – A Nashville, Tennessee, boy was killed when an apparently damaged “exploding artillery” firework malfunctioned as he held it skyward for a friend to light, police said on Monday.
Colorado Supreme Court rules against school voucher program
DENVER (Reuters) – Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a controversial school voucher program in a Denver suburb violates the state’s constitution because it provides funding for students to attend religious schools.
L.A. County’s top prosecutor creates wrongful conviction review unit
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Los Angeles County’s top prosecutor has created a unit, headed by three experienced prosecutors, to review credible claims of wrongful convictions by criminal defendants.
Divided U.S. Supreme Court upholds Oklahoma lethal injection process
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Supreme Court on Monday found that a lethal injection drug used by Oklahoma does not violate the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, a ruling that provoked a caustic debate among the justices about the de…
Texas farmer killed by swarm of bees
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – A Texas farmer who disturbed an underground bee colony while plowing a field died after he was stung hundreds of times by a swarm that attacked him, a fire official said on Monday.
Chicago mayor turns down state cash advance to schools
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday turned down an offer by Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner to advance a fiscal 2016 state payment to the city’s cash-strapped school system to help make a pension payment.
‘My life was wasted,’ ex-Boston mob boss Bulger tells students: report
BOSTON (Reuters) – Long-time Boston mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger told a group of Massachusetts high school students who had written to ask him questions for a research project that his “life was wasted and spent foolishly,” the Boston Globe reported….
Civil War buffs on Confederate flag debate: It’s complicated
(This story corrects the June 28 story to change the location of the state house to Columbia instead of Charleston in paragraph 6, and remove reference to Charleston in a quote in paragraph 7)
U.S. top court agrees to weigh affirmative action in college admissions
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday waded into a new major battle over the future of affirmative action in college admissions by agreeing to take up for the second time a challenge to the process for picking students used by the Uni…
U.S. charges fifth man in alleged N.Y.-N.J. Islamic State plot
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A New Jersey man was arrested on Monday on charges of conspiring to provide support to the militant group Islamic State, the fifth man to be arrested in recent weeks as part of a broader probe in the New York City region.
