Doctor reprimanded for talking publicly about 10-year-old’s abortion
An Indiana board has decided to reprimand an Indianapolis doctor after finding that she violated patient privacy laws by talking publicly about providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim from neighboring Ohio. The state Medical Licensing Board voted that Dr. Caitlin Bernard didn’t abide by privacy laws when she told a newspaper reporter about the girl’s treatment in a case that became a flashpoint in the national abortion debate days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer. Board members chose to fine Bernard $3,000 for the violations, turning down a request from the attorney general’s office to suspend Bernard’s license.
GOP-controlled House moves to impeach AG
After years of legal and ethical scandals swirling around Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, the state’s GOP-controlled House of Representatives has moved toward an impeachment vote that could quickly throw him from office. The extraordinary and rarely used maneuver comes in the final days of the legislative session and sets up a bruising political fight. On one side is Paxton, who has allied himself closely with former President Donald Trump and the state’s hard-right conservatives. On the other is House Republican leadership, who appear to have suddenly had enough of the allegations of wrongdoing that have long dogged Texas’ top lawyer.
DEA revokes license over opioid crisis failures
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has stripped one of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical distributors of its license to sell highly addictive painkillers after determining it failed to flag thousands of suspicious, high-volume orders at the height of the opioid crisis. The revocation order against Morris & Dickson Co. that threatens to put the Louisiana-based company out of business came two days after an Associated Press investigation found the DEA allowed the company to keep shipping drugs for nearly four years after a judge recommended the harshest punishment for its “cavalier disregard” of rules aimed at preventing opioid abuse.
Attornety demands firing in police shooting death
An attorney says a Mississippi police officer who shot and wounded an 11-year-old Black boy in the child’s home should be fired. Attorney Carlos Moore says Aderrien Murry was shot in the chest early Saturday in Indianola. Moore says the child’s mother, Nakala Murry, asked her son to call police because of an intruder in their home. Moore says after she told officers that the intruder had left, an officer yelled for anyone else in the house to come out. That’s when Aderrian was shot. The child returned home Wednesday after being hospitalized five days for a collapsed lung, lacerated liver and fractured ribs.
FBI details 1983 threat to Elizabeth II
The FBI has disclosed a potential threat to Queen Elizabeth II during her 1983 trip to the U.S. West Coast. The documents were released this week on the FBI’s records website. The FBI says a San Francisco police officer received a call from a man who indicated he was going to try to harm the queen, either near the Golden Gate Bridge or at Yosemite National Park. The documents say the Secret Service intended to close the bridge’s walkways as the yacht drew near.
— The Associated Press
They didn’t indicate whether precautions were taken at Yosemite or whether any arrests were made. The queen’s trip was completed without incident. She died last September.
Elon Musk’s brain implant company says it has OK for human trials
Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink says it’s gotten permission from U.S. regulators to begin testing its device in people. The company made the announcement on Twitter Thursday evening. Officials with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration wouldn’t confirm or deny whether the agency granted the approval, but a press officer acknowledged the announcement. Neuralink is one of many groups working on linking the nervous system to computers. The Neuralink device is about the size of a large coin and is designed to be implanted in the skull. Musk previously said one of the first applications in people would to attempt to restore vision.
DeSantis touting books bans in red states
TALLAHASSEE, Florida (AP) — As he vies for the Republican presidential nomination, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is touting a series of measures he has pushed that have led to an upswing in banned or restricted books — not just in Florida schools but in an increasing number of other conservative states. Florida last year became the first in a wave of red states to enact laws making it easier for parents to challenge books in school libraries they deem to be pornographic, deal improperly with racial issues or in other ways inappropriate. DeSantis insists books aren’t actually being “banned” in his state’s schools, preferring to call the forced removal of some books “curation choices.”
Russia says its border regions attacked
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Authorities say Russia’s southern Belgorod region that borders Ukraine came under attack from Ukrainian artillery fire, hours after two drones struck a Russian city in a region next to the Crimea Peninsula. The Kremlin’s forces meanwhile struck a clinic in Dnipro on Friday, killing two and wounding another 23, including two children. Ukrainian officials also said a Russian missile hit a dam in the Karlivka district of Donetsk province in eastern Ukraine. That placed nearby settlements under threat of severe flooding. Russia’s Belgorod region was earlier this week the target of one of the most serious cross-border attacks from Ukraine since the war began 15 months ago.