Police shooting, protests put Ferguson on edge
FERGUSON, Mo. — Ferguson was a community on edge again Monday, a day after a protest marking the anniversary of Michael Brown’s death was punctuated with gunshots and police critically wounded a black 18-year-old accused of opening fire on officers.
Police, protesters and people who live and work in the St. Louis suburb were bracing for what nightfall might bring following more violence along West Florissant Avenue, the same thoroughfare that was the site of massive protests and rioting after Brown was fatally shot last year in a confrontation with a white Ferguson officer.
The father of the suspect who was shot called the police version of events “a bunch of lies.” He said two girls who were with his son told him he was unarmed and had been drawn into a dispute involving two groups of young people.
St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger declared a state of emergency, which authorizes county Police Chief Jon Belmar to take control of police emergency management in and around Ferguson.
Clinton calls for campaign finance reform, group backing her gets $1M from untraceable donors
WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton told a cheering crowd at her largest rally so far that “the endless flow of secret, unaccountable money” must be stopped. Two weeks later, the main super PAC backing her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination accepted a $1 million contribution that cannot be traced.
The seven-figure donation, made June 29 to the pro-Clinton Priorities USA Action, came from another super political action committee, called Fair Share Action. Its two lone contributors are Fair Share Inc. and Environment America Inc., according to records filed with Federal Election Commission.
Those two groups are nonprofits that are not legally required to reveal information about their donors. Such contributions are sometimes called “dark money” by advocates for stricter campaign finance rules.
Study that FAA wouldn’t release shows chronic fatigue among traffic controllers
WASHINGTON — Air traffic controllers’ work schedules often lead to chronic fatigue, making them less alert and endangering the safety of the national air traffic system, according to a study the government kept secret for years.
Federal Aviation Administration officials posted the study online Monday, hours after The Associated Press reported the findings — and noted that agency officials had declined to furnish a copy despite repeated requests over the past three months, including a Freedom of Information Act filing.
The AP was able to obtain a draft of the final report dated Dec. 1, 2011. The report FAA posted online was dated December 2012, although the findings appear to be nearly identical to the draft.
The impetus for the study was a recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board to the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association to revise controller schedules to provide rest periods that are long enough “to obtain sufficient restorative sleep.”
The study found that nearly 2 in 10 controllers had committed significant errors in the previous year — such as bringing planes too close together — and over half attributed the errors to fatigue. A third of controllers said they perceived fatigue to be a “high” or “extreme” safety risk.
Day of heavy violence in Istanbul: attack at US consulate
ISTANBUL — Two female assailants opened fire at the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul on Monday and at least six Turkish security forces were killed elsewhere in a day of heavy violence in Turkey, where a government crackdown has targeted Islamic State militants, Kurdish rebels and far-left extremists.
Turkey has seen a sharp spike in clashes between security forces and rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in the a wake of its campaign against PKK targets in Iraq in tandem with airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria. Hundreds of suspected militants have also been rounded up at home.
No one was hurt in the attack on the U.S. Consulate, which came just weeks after Turkey agreed to take a more active role in the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State group and to allow the U.S.-led coalition to use its bases in the fight against IS. On Sunday, the U.S. military announced that a detachment of six F-16 fighter jets and some 300 personnel had arrived at Turkey’s southern Incirlik Air Base.
A far-left group that carried out a 2013 suicide bombing on the U.S. Embassy in Ankara claimed it was involved in the attack.
Both assailants fled, and one was later shot and taken into custody. The Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army-Front, or DHKP-C identified her as 51-year-old Hatice Asik and said she was a member of the group, which is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Turkey. The other assailant was still at large.
Some US rowers fall ill at test event for 2016 Olympics
RIO DE JANEIRO — Thirteen rowers on the 40-member U.S. team came down with stomach illness at the World Junior Rowing Championships — a trial run for next summer’s Olympics — and the team doctor said she suspected it was due to pollution in the lake where the competition took place.
The event took place amid rising concerns about the water quality at venues for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, now less than a year away.
The Americans were by far the hardest hit at the regatta that concluded over the weekend, with reports of vomiting and diarrhea. Other teams in the competition reported some illnesses, according to World Rowing, the sport’s governing body, but those were about as expected at an event that featured more than 500 young rowers.
On July 30, The Associated Press published an independent analysis of water quality that showed high levels of viruses and, in some cases, bacteria from human sewage in all of Rio’s Olympic and Paralympic water venues, including the Rodrigo de Freitas Lake, where the rowing competition took place.
Wisconsin girls accused of stabbing classmate to be tried as adults
WAUKESHA, Wis. — A Wisconsin judge ruled Monday that two 13-year-old girls accused of stabbing a classmate to please the online horror character Slender Man will stay in adult court, where they could face a sentence of decades in prison.
Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren said he was worried the girls would stop receiving mental health treatment and be released into the community with no supervision when they exited the juvenile system at age 18. Keeping them in the adult system would protect people longer, the judge said.
“The real issue is what happens in a few years,” Bohren said. “They’ve committed an offense that was … frankly vicious.”
The two girls, both wearing dresses and in shackles, said nothing during the 45-minute proceeding. One of them bounced in her chair until a bailiff whispered to her. She spent the rest of the hearing hunched over and glancing at the ceiling. The girls’ attorneys also said nothing to the judge.
By wire sources.