Alex Jones ordered to pay Sandy Hook parents more than $4M

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – A Texas jury Thursday ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay more than $4 million – significantly less than the $150 million being sought – in compensatory damages to the parents of a 6-year-old boy killed in the Sandy Hook massacre, marking the first time the Infowars host has been held financially liable for repeatedly claiming the deadliest school shooting in U.S.

history was a hoax.

The Austin jury must still decide how much the Infowars host should pay in punitive damages to Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose son Jesse Lewis was among the 20 children and six educators who were killed in the 2012 attack in Newtown, Connecticut.

The parents had sought at least $150 million in compensation for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Jones´ attorney asked the jury to limit damages to $8 – one dollar for each of the compensation charges they considered – and Jones himself said any award over $2 million “would sink us.”

It likely won’t be the last judgment against Jones – who was not in the courtroom – over his claims that the attack was staged in the interests of increasing gun controls.

A Connecticut judge has ruled against him in a similar lawsuit brought by other victims’ families and an FBI agent who worked on the case. He also faces another trial in Austin.

Jones´ lead attorney, Andino Reynal, winked at his co-counsel before leaving the courtroom.

He declined to comment on the verdict.

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US declares public health emergency over monkeypox outbreak

WASHINGTON (AP) – The federal government declared a public health emergency Thursday to bolster the response to the monkeypoxoutbreak that has infected more than 7,100 Americans.

The announcement will free up money and other resources to fight the virus, which may cause fever, body aches, chills, fatigue and pimple-like bumps on many parts of the body.

“We are prepared to take our response to the next level in addressing this virus, and we urge every American to take monkeypox seriously,” said Xavier Becerra, head of the U.S.

Department of Health and Human Services.

The declaration by HHS comes as the Biden administration has faced criticism over monkeypox vaccine availability. Clinics in major cities such as New York and San Francisco say they haven´t received enough of the two-shot vaccine to meet demand, and some have had to stop offering the second dose to ensure supply of first doses.

The White House said it has made more than 1.1 million doses available and has helped to boost domestic diagnostic capacity to 80,000 tests per week.

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EXPLAINER: What will it take to get Brittney Griner home?

WASHINGTON (AP) – Now that WNBA star Brittney Griner has been convicted of drug possession and sentenced to nine years in prison, attention turns to the prospect of a prisoner swap between the United States and Russia that could get her home.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken went public with that possibility last week, revealing in an unusual announcement that the U.S.

had made a “substantial proposal” aimed at securing the release of Griner and another jailed American, Paul Whelan.

With her court case concluded and her sentence pronounced, such a deal – assuming one can be reached with the Russians – is Griner’s best chance of being freed early.

Though the guilty verdict was seen as a foregone conclusion, the imposition of a sentence her lawyers decried as far longer than average could give the U.S.

extra impetus to strike a deal palatable to Russia as soon as possible. And the formal end of the court case could be the opening both sides need to forge a diplomatic resolution, too.

A look at what’s at stake:

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Seven years of sex abuse: How Mormon officials let it happen

BISBEE, Ariz.

(AP) – MJ was a tiny, black-haired girl, just 5 years old, when her father admitted to his bishop that he was sexually abusing her.

The father, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and an admitted pornography addict, was in counseling with his bishop when he revealed the abuse.
The bishop, who was also a family physician, followed church policy and called what church officials have dubbed the “help line” for guidance.

But the call offered little help for MJ. Lawyers for the church, widely known as the Mormon church, who staff the help line around the clock told Bishop John Herrod not to call police or child welfare officials.

Instead he kept the abuse secret.

“They said, `You absolutely can do nothing,´” Herrod said in a recorded interview with law enforcement.

Herrod continued to counsel MJ´s father, Paul Douglas Adams, for another year, and brought in Adams´ wife, Leizza Adams, in hopes she would do something to protect the children. She didn´t.

Herrod later told a second bishop, who also kept the matter secret after consulting with church officials who maintain that the bishops were excused from reporting the abuse to police under the state´s so-called clergy-penitent privilege.

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Dried blood and roses: Jury gets rare look at Parkland scene

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.

(AP) – Roses brought to honor love on that Valentine’s Day in 2018 lay withered, their dried and cracked petals scattered across classroom floors still smeared with the blood of victims gunned down by a former student more than four years ago.

Bullet holes pocked walls, and shards of glass from windows shattered by gunfire crunched underfoot at Parkland´s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where shooter Nikolas Cruz killed 14 students and three staff members.

Nothing had been changed, except for the removal of the victims’ bodies and some personal items.

Twelve jurors and 10 alternates who will decide whether Cruz gets the death penalty or เอ็กทีเอ็ก788 life in prison made a rare visit to the massacre scene Thursday, retracing Cruz’s steps through the three-story freshman building, known as “Building 12.” After they left, a group of journalists was allowed in for a much quicker first public view.

The sight was deeply unsettling: Large pools of dried blood still stained classroom floors.

A lock of dark hair rested on the floor where one of the victims’ bodies once lay. A single black rubber shoe was in a hallway. Browned rose petals were strewn across a hallway where six people died.

In classroom after classroom, open notebooks displayed uncompleted lessons.
A blood-coated book called, “Tell Them We Remember” sat atop a bullet-riddled desk in the classroom where teacher Ivy Schamis taught students about the Holocaust. A sign attached to a bulletin board read: “We will never forget.” Two students died there.

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Autocratic Hungarian leader Orban hailed by US conservatives

DALLAS (AP) – Hungary´s autocratic Prime Minister Viktor Orban urged cheering American conservatives on Thursday to “take back the institutions,” stick to hardline stances on gay rights and immigration and fight for the next U.S.

presidential election as a pivotal moment for their beliefs.

The exuberant cheers and standing ovations at the Conservative Political Action Conference for the far-right prime minister, who has been criticized for undermining his own country’s democratic institutions, demonstrated the growing embrace between Orban and Republicans in the U.S.

He mocked the media in this country and in Europe.

And in a speech he titled “How We Fight,” Orban told the crowd gathered in a Dallas convention ballroom to focus now on the 2024 election, saying they had “two years to get ready,” though he endorsed no candidate or party.

“Victory will never be found by taking the path of least resistance,” he said during one of the keynote slots of the three-day CPAC event.

“We must take back the institutions in Washington and Brussels. We must find friends and allies in one another.”

Referring to liberals, he said: “They hate me and slander me and my country, as they hate you and slander you for the America you stand for.”

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Polio fears rise in New York amid possible community spread

ALBANY, N.Y.

(AP) – New York state health officials issued a more urgent call Thursday for unvaccinated children and adults to get inoculated against polio, citing new evidence of possible “community spread” of the dangerous virus.

The polio virus has now been found in seven different wastewater samples in two adjacent counties north of New York City, health officials said.

So far, only one person has tested positive for polio – an unvaccinated adult in Rockland County who suffered paralysis.

But based on earlier polio outbreaks, “New Yorkers should know that for every one case of paralytic polio observed, there may be hundreds of other people infected,” the state’s health commissioner, Dr.

Mary T. Bassett, said in a statement.

“Coupled with the latest wastewater findings, the Department is treating the single case of polio as just the tip of the iceberg of much greater potential spread,” she said. “As we learn more, what we do know is clear: the danger of polio is present in New York today. We must meet this moment by ensuring that adults, including pregnant people, and young children by 2 months of age are up to date with their immunization – the safe protection against this debilitating virus that every New Yorker needs.”

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Police: No victim found in shooting at Mall of America

BLOOMINGTON, Minn.

(AP) – Someone fired shots Thursday at the Mall of America in suburban Minneapolis, sending shoppers running for cover, but police said they did not immediately find a victim.

Bloomington police also said they were still searching for a suspect after securing the scene shortly before 6 p.m.
They said a lockdown that had forced some shoppers to shelter in place, while others fled, was in the process of being lifted, but that the mall would not reopen Thursday.

Video posted to social media showed what appeared to be a man shouting as he walked near the complex´s Nike store, with at least three apparent gunshots.

The mall, which opened in 1992, is the largest in the U.S.

and is a tourist destination and community gathering spot.

Video posted online showed shoppers fleeing from the amusement park at the interior on the giant mall´s ground level, holding their children´s hands and clutching their bags.
Still other video showed a pair of police officers, including one with a rifle, moving through the mall, and people walking quickly away from the mall’s large interior atrium area.

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Tennessee polls close for GOP House fight, Dem gov primary

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

(AP) - Polls closed Thursday night in a Tennessee primary election that will settle a nine-way Republican fight in a reconfigured Nashville congressional district that the GOP hopes to flip. Democrats will choose a nominee for governor in what could be a history-making bid to topple the GOP incumbent.

Two of three Democratic candidates for governor would be the state´s first Black Democratic nominee for that office; the third is a physician running for political office for the first time, spurred by Republican Gov.

Bill Lee’s hands-off response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lee is running unopposed and would have a strong advantage in a general election in a state that has not elected a Democrat to statewide office since 2006.

Redrawn congressional districts helped put Tennessee among the states where Republicans hope to flip a seat in a push to reclaim control of the U.S.

House, providing the main drama in Tennessee´s primaries. Tennessee held the only statewide elections nationally Thursday.

Nashville’s 5th Congressional District drew heavy interest from Republicans after GOP state lawmakers carved Democratic-tilted Nashville into three districts, favoring their party in each seat.
The longtime incumbent in the 5th District, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, decided to retire, saying there was “no way” he could win reelection under the new redistricting maps. The new district favored Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Joe Biden by 12 percentage points in 2020.

In the other two Nashville-area districts, the Republican incumbents don’t have primary opponents.

The new maps weight their districts in their favor.

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South Korean spacecraft launched to the moon, country’s 1st

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – South Korea joined the stampede to the moon Thursday with the launch of a lunar orbiter that will scout out future landing spots.

The satellite launched by SpaceX is taking a long, roundabout path to conserve fuel and will arrive in December.

If successful, it will join spacecraft from the U.S.

and India already operating around the moon, and a Chinese rover exploring the moon´s far side.

India, Russia and Japan have new moon missions launching later this year or next, as do a slew of private companies in the U.S.
and elsewhere. And NASA is next up with the debut of its mega moon rocket in late August.

South Korea´s $180 million mission – the country´s first step in lunar exploration – features a boxy, solar-powered satellite designed to skim just 62 miles (100 kilometers) above the lunar surface.

Scientists expect to collect geologic and other data for at least a year from this low polar orbit.