June 26 top stories
Hello, it is June 26. Here are today’s top stories.
Suspect dead after shooting spree kills 5, critically injures teen girl in Las Vegas
The North Las Vegas Police Department said Tuesday the suspected shooter, 47-year-old Eric Adams, who fatally shot five people and critically injured a 13-year-old girl at multiple apartments near Las Vegas has killed himself.
According to the department, police initially found two older women dead while investigating reports of a shooting late Monday at an apartment. They later learned a teen girl had been taken to a hospital with critical gunshot wounds and that there could be more victims in a nearby apartment.
Officers then found the bodies of two younger women and a young man. All victims had been shot. They weren’t immediately identified and police did not provide details on whether the victims knew each other or knew the suspect.
The discovery led to an overnight search for Adams.
Just after 10 a.m. Tuesday, police learned that the suspect had been seen at a business in North Las Vegas.
As officers arrived in the area, they saw the suspect with a firearm running into the backyard of a nearby home. The department said officers followed him, but the suspect refused to drop his weapon and died by suicide.
New York, Colorado primaries 2024 – Bowman loses, Boebert wins
Progressive Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., suffered a primary defeat Tuesday to a moderate challenger, George Latimer.
Bowman, 48, one of Congress’ fiercest critics of Israel, is the first incumbent Democratic lawmaker to lose a primary this election cycle.
According to the ad tracking firm AdImpact, the race between Bowman and Latimer in New York’s 16th District drew more ad spending – $25 million than any other House primary in history. Nearly $15 million of that spending came from a powerful pro-Israel lobby which backed Latimer.
Meanwhile, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., won her GOP primary Tuesday, after she decided to run in a different district from the one where she narrowly won re-election in 2022.
Boebert defeated five other Republicans for the party’s nomination in Colorado’s 4th District, which opened up after Rep. Ken Buck announced this year that he would resign.
Boebert, whom Trump backed, will be heavily favored to win the seat in the general election given the area’s rightward lean.
Biden pardons veterans convicted under military ban on gay sex
President Biden on Wednesday pardoned veterans who were convicted and forced out of the military because of a former law that banned gay sex.
Biden’s clemency will extend to thousands of former military service members who were convicted of the former Uniform Code of Military Justice Article 125 while it was in effect from the 1950s to 2013.
The ban was repealed by Congress and former President Obama as part of the 2014 defense authorization bill.
Biden said in a statement: “Today, I am righting an historic wrong by using my clemency authority to pardon many former service members who were convicted simply for being themselves.”
The clemency action won’t automatically change the recipients’ criminal record. It will instead allow them to apply for a pardon that will help them receive benefits that were withheld from them due to their other than honorable discharge status.
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Deadly protests in Kenya over tax bill
Multiple sources reported that thousands of protesters stormed Kenya’s parliament Tuesday to protest unpopular tax proposals in the Finance Bill 2024, burning part of the building, sending lawmakers fleeing and drawing fire from police in unrest that the president vowed to squash. At least 13 people were killed.
All the events unfolded minutes after lawmakers voted to approve tax hikes–aiming to raise $2.7 billion, equivalent to almost 2% of GDP, and reducing the budget deficit.
The original bill had proposed taxes on bread, cooking oil, mobile money services, specialized hospitals and on motor vehicles. Protesters said the bill would impose unaffordable tax rises on ordinary citizens and businesses already weighed down by the high cost of living.
The government had dropped some of the contentious proposals but protesters wanted the entire bill scrapped.
On Wednesday, Kenya’s President William Ruto said he will withdraw a finance bill containing controversial tax hikes after deadly protests. In an address to the nation, he said it was clear that Kenyans want nothing to do with the bill. He said, “I concede’, adding that he will not sign the bill into law.
See Alex’s update on the Supreme Court ruling in the Biden administration’s social media case.
Biden admin notches SCOTUS social media win
Thanks, Callie.
Today the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Biden administration in a case to determine whether U.S. government officials can talk directly with social media platforms such as Facebook to encourage them to take down posts containing false information.
The case, called Murthy v. Missouri, emerged after Biden officials called on tech platforms to take down disinformation related to Covid-19 vaccines. The state of Missouri thought it was inappropriate and sued the Biden administration in 2022.
The case was argued in the Supreme Court in March with the decision issued today.
Axios said the decision is not just a victory for government officials now, but in the future. If the Supreme Court ruled against the Biden administration, it could have limited the government from talking with social media companies about anything.
Thanks for the update. That’s all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!
Suspect dead after shooting spree kills 5, critically injures teen girl in Las Vegas
https://www.fox5vegas.com/2024/06/25/two-women-found-dead-north-las-vegas-apartment-complex/
New York, Colorado primaries 2024 – Bowman loses, Boebert wins
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/jamaal-bowman-primary-election-result-loss-rcna158902
https://www.cpr.org/2024/06/25/4th-congressional-district-race/
Biden pardons veterans convicted under military ban on gay sex
Deadly protests in Kenya over tax bill
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/25/anti-tax-protesters-kenya-00164976
Biden admin notches SCOTUS social media win
https://www.axios.com/pro/tech-policy/2024/06/26/supreme-court-social-media-biden-white-house