September 26 top stories
It is September 26. Here are today’s top stories.
Judge rules Trump defrauded banks and insurers
AP News said a New York judge ruled that former president Donald Trump and his company committed fraud for years while building his real estate empire.
The ruling is a decision on a civil lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James.
AP said Trump was accused of “massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing loans.”
Judge Arthur Engoron said Trump, his company and key executives repeatedly lied about his riches on his annual financial statements, reaping rewards such as favorable loan terms and lower insurance costs. The judge said Trump crossed a line and violated the law.
AP News explained that there will be a trial starting October 2 on whether Trump should be forced to pay $250 million in penalties.
Trump’s attorneys argued that there was no evidence that the public was harmed by Trump’s actions and that many of the allegations in the lawsuit were from too far back ago, past the statute of limitations.
The judge responded that these arguments were the same that Trump’s attorneys presented earlier in the case and that it was like the film, “Groundhog Day.” (The same thing again and again and again). The judge fined five of Trump’s defense lawyers $7,500 each as punishment.
Trump posted on his Truth Social site that his civil rights have been violated and that “some Appellate Court, whether federal or state, must reverse this horrible, un-American decision.” He said it is a part of an ongoing plot to damage his run for the presidency in 2024.
Would-be mass shooter stopped at Virginia church
NBC 4 Washington reported that police arrested a man who was about to carry out a mass shooting at a church in Northern Virginia on Sunday morning.
Police said someone saw that a man named Rui Jiang made troubling posts on Instagram, such as him pointing a firearm at pictures of churches. The person saw that Jiang posted images from the parking lot of the Park Valley Church in Haymarket on Sunday morning with captions such as “Blood will be on your hands” or “No women will be harmed.”
The person called police and officers found Jiang in the vestibule of the church. He was about to enter the church with the congregation. When he was detained, he was carrying a loaded gun, extra ammo, and a knife.
Police said when they searched his home, they found a manifesto in which Jiang said he didn’t know anyone at the church but would kill them. Police said they stopped Jiang only “minutes” before he would have carried out an attack.
Jiang faces charges for making threats and taking a weapon to church. He is now being held without bond.
WGA writers strike officially over
Axios said “after 148 days of tense negotiations, long picket lines, and stalled production, the leadership for the Writers Guild of America on Tuesday voted to officially end the Hollywood writers strike…”
More than 11,500 writers are now eligible to return to work, which will bring back production of live talk shows, including late-night, in the very near future. But shows that require acting may remain on hold because the actors strike is still ongoing.
Axios said the deal is a “three-year deal that gives WGA members wage increases, better residual payouts, staffing minimums and guidelines around the use of artificial intelligence.”
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Hiker falls to death at North Carolina waterfall overlook
ABC News said a 61-year-old woman who was hiking through the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina fell 150 feet from an overlook to her death. Her name was Nancy Sampson.
Park officials said Sampson fell off at the Glassmine Falls Overlook around noon Saturday.
First responders rappelled from the top of the cliff and discovered Sampson and saw that she died due to her injuries.
There was a family member who was with Sampson who was grieving after she fell and first responders provided him with support.
Police said they are investigating how Sampson fell.
Cop charged with abusing authority after detaining ex-girlfriend
The NY Post reported that a married Pennsylvania State Police trooper is facing charges of abusing his authority after he allegedly violently detained his ex-girlfriend and committed her to a mental health treatment program under false claims.
The cop’s name is Ronald Davis (37). There is a video showing him wrestling a woman on the ground. The woman said Davis told her, “I know you’re not crazy, I’ll paint you as crazy.”
Court documents showed that Davis got texts from the woman in which she threatened suicide and used them to obtain an order to get her committed. Once he got the order approved, he went to the woman to detain her. That's when they were filmed wrestling on the ground. The woman tells Davis that he’s the insane one.
The woman did end up being committed to a hospital for five days. After an investigation, authorities said Davis failed to provide the full context of the text messages from the woman and that there was a domestic dispute between him and the victim.
Davis is now charged with felony strangulation, false imprisonment, and related charges.
Supreme Court to allow Alabama congressional map to be redrawn
The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the state of Alabama’s attempts to delay the creation of a new congressional map with at least two majority Black districts.
NPR explained that in June, the court ruled that Alabama’s Republican-drawn congressional map violated the Voting Rights Act because, in a state with seven congressional districts and a 27% Black population, there was just one congressional district in which Black voters are either a majority or close to it.
Alabama lawmakers were supposed to create a second majority Black district but they didn’t. The state appealed the case for a second time but the Supreme Court denied it.
A lower court has already appointed a special master to submit a new Alabama congressional map. One of the proposals has a district with a majority Black population and a second one with about a 50% Black population. The lower court may make a decision on a new map next month.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-letitia-james-fraud-lawsuit-1569245a9284427117b8d3ba5da74249
https://www.axios.com/2023/09/27/wga-strike-end
https://abcnews.go.com/US/hiker-falls-death-north-carolina-waterfall-overlook/story?id=103495115
https://nypost.com/2023/09/24/pa-state-police-trooper-ronald-davis-tackled-ex-to-ground-dauphin-da/
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/26/1200906844/supreme-court-alabama-voting-case