Category Archives: Kentucky

Breonna Taylor: Kentucky attorney general agrees to release grand jury recordings

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Juror had sued to release transcripts, saying ‘absolute truth of how this matter was handled’ should be published

Kentucky’s attorney general has said he will release a recording of the grand jury proceedings in the Breonna Taylor case, after a judge ordered they be filed in court by noon on Wednesday. It follows an anonymous juror suing for them to be made public.

Attorney general, Daniel Cameron, said in a statement: “The Grand Jury is meant to be a secretive body. It’s apparent that the public interest in this case isn’t going to allow that to happen.”

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‘We are never safe’: Breonna Taylor’s family condemns Louisville police as protests enter third night

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Family expresses anger and disappointment after jury decided not to charge officers directly for killing of 26-year-old medical worker

Breonna Taylor’s family spoke out for the first time since a grand jury in Kentucky announced that it had decided not to charge three police officers directly in the killing of the 26-year-old medical worker in March.

Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, on Friday attended a press conference at a downtown Louisville park that has become a focus for protests and a makeshift memorial to Taylor, who was shot dead in her apartment after police barged in and fired a hail of bullets during a botched investigation.

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‘I hope you never know the pain’: Breonna Taylor’s family condemn Louisville police – video

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The family of Breonna Taylor heavily criticised Daniel Cameron, Kentucky’s attorney general, after a grand jury decided not to charge three police officers directly in the killing of the 26-year-old medical worker.

'I am an angry black woman,' Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, said in a statement read by her sister, Bianca Austin. 'Angry because our black women keep dying at the hands of police officers'.

The family's attorney, Benjamin Crump, called on Cameron to release the transcripts of the grand jury.

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Breonna Taylor protesters march in Louisville as state representative among dozens arrested – video

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Protesters marched and chanted Breonna Taylor's name for a second night in Louisville, Kentucky, on Thursday – after a grand jury decided no police officer would be charged directly with her death in March.

On Thursday night, police made several arrests, including the Kentucky state representative, Attica Scott, a Democrat who has called for justice for Taylor, who shot dead in a botched raid

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Breonna Taylor decision: fresh protests expected across US

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Demonstrations occurred in several major US cities Wednesday after just one police officer charged with wanton endangerment

Fresh protests were expected in Louisville and elsewhere in America on Thursday as public anger and sadness continued to ripple out from the Kentucky city in the wake of the announcement that no police officers would be charged directly with the shooting death of Breonna Taylor in March.

The civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, speaking on behalf of Taylor’s relatives, said the family was “outraged, they were insulted and they were, mostly, offended” by the conclusion of a grand jury in Kentucky on Wednesday.

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Breonna Taylor protests erupt across US – video

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Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in more than a dozen cities across the US after a grand jury decided not to directly charge police officers for the killing of Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot by Louisville police as officers carried out a no-knock warrant in March.

Two police officers were shot in Louisville amid growing nationwide protests. It was confirmed both officers sustained non-life-threatening injuries on Wednesday evening

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Breonna Taylor killing: attorney general calls for calm as no officers directly charged – video

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The Kentucky attorney general, Daniel Cameron, urged protesters to make their voices heard peacefully after only one police officer involved in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, Brett Hankison, was indicted by a grand jury. Hankinson faces three charges of wanton endangerment for endangering people living in nearby apartments, but he was not charged for shooting Taylor. The other two officers present, who also fired multiple times at Taylor in her apartment, were not charged

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Revealed: states’ restrictive voter ID laws have cost taxpayers $36m

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The Guardian has found that millions have been spent to implement and defend laws widely regarded to be ineffective and discriminatory

Restrictive ‘voter identification’ laws pushed by Republicans, and widely regarded to be ineffective and discriminatory, have cost taxpayers at least $36m in just a few states, the Guardian can reveal.

It’s well documented that restrictive voter ID laws are ineffective and discriminatory. The type of voter fraud they claim to prevent is a myth, and the burden of showing an ID disproportionately lands on students, low-income voters, and African Americans.

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George Floyd killing: protests rage as anger mounts in cities across US – live

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In Los Angeles, protesters marched through the downtown area before shutting the 110 freeway.

From @KTLA: protestors have shut down the 110 freeway pic.twitter.com/1WI75tIMOl

LAPD seen trying to detain protesters after squad car windows smashed, officer attacked downtown https://t.co/uHrpaRp3xm pic.twitter.com/gmxNAdO1uM

Demonstrator in DTLA made a cordon blocking the road out of Bird scooters pic.twitter.com/aV8c63SG4k

Kellie Chauvin, the wife of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with killing George Floyd, is divorcing her husband because of his role in Floyd’s death.

Kellie Chauvin,
Through her attorney wife of former Officer Derek Chauvin the former Minneapolis Police Officer charged with murdering #GeorgeFloyd released a statement saying she is devastated by Floyd’s death, sends condolences to his family and is divorcing her husband @wcco pic.twitter.com/A5n7bYgdbK

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Kentucky lockdown protesters condemned for hanging effigy of governor from tree

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Incident at conservative rally draws backlash from Democrats and Republicans

Political leaders in Kentucky have condemned rightwing protesters against the state’s measures to fight the coronavirus, after the demonstrators hanged an effigy of Democratic state governor Andy Beshear from a tree.

The incident happened on Sunday during a protest in favor of gun rights and other mostly conservative causes. Several men produced a rope and an effigy and strung it from a tree outside the state capitol building in Frankfort.

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Four children die after Amish buggy overturns in Kentucky stream

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  • Fifth child missing but adult in vehicle swims to safety
  • Buggy carrying family was trying to cross a low-water bridge

Authorities in Kentucky said four children died and one is missing after a buggy carrying an Amish family was swept away in the current while trying to cross a low-water bridge.

Six people were in the horse and buggy that overturned on Wednesday in Salt Lick, Bath county, Kentucky state police said in a statement.

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Kentucky Republicans push restrictive voter ID law based on voter fraud myth

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New bureaucratic hurdle where voters must carry ID with a photo likely to affect minorities and students

Last month, Kentucky elected Democratic governor Andy Beshear in a closely watch election – a landmark blue win in a mostly conservative state. One of the core promises of his campaign was to restore voting rights to 140,000 people with felony convictions, which he fulfilled immediately after taking office.

Related: The biggest voting rights win in recent US history – and the Republicans trying to thwart it

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Kentucky ex-governor pardoned child rapist because victim’s hymen was intact

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Matt Bevin under avalanche of criticism after pardoning 428 people in final days of term including two convicted child rapists

When the former Republican governor of Kentucky Matt Bevin was asked in a recent radio interview how he could justify having pardoned on his last day in office a child rapist, he replied: “Which one?”

The interview went downhill from there. Bevin said he had allowed Micah Schoettle, 41, who was serving a 23-year sentence for rape, incest, sodomy and other sexual offenses to walk free last week after less than 18 months in prison because his nine-year-old victim had been found to have her hymen intact.

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Incumbent Kentucky governor Matt Bevin refuses to concede defeat to Democratic rival – video

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The incumbent Republican governor Matt Bevin has refused to concede the election in Kentucky, citing unspecified 'irregularities'. The Democratic challenger Andy Beshear declared himself the winner after securing 49.2% of the vote to Bevin’s 48.8%. While Donald Trump won Kentucky with more than 60% of the vote in 2016 and remains popular in the state, Bevin polls as one of America’s most unpopular governors

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Kentucky governor race: Democrat Andy Beshear declares victory – video

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The Democratic challenger Andy Beshear has declared victory in the Kentucky governor's race, but the Republican incumbent Matt Bevin has refused to concede, citing unspecified 'irregularities'. In a speech in Lexington on Monday night, Donald Trump – who won Kentucky by 30 percentage points in 2016 – told voters they needed to re-elect Bevin, or else pundits would say the president 'suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the world'

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Abortion: judge strikes down Kentucky restriction but governor to appeal

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Federal judge says 2018 law would create ‘substantial obstacle’ to abortion rights

After a federal judge struck down a Kentucky abortion law that would halt a common second-trimester procedure to end pregnancies, the state’s anti-abortion Republican governor immediately vowed to appeal.

Related: All the president’s judges: how Trump can flip courts at a record-setting pace

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Student in standoff with Native American defends his actions – video report

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The Kentucky high school student filmed in an apparent standoff with a Native American activist in Washington DC says he was 'not disrespectful' during the interaction, as a spokesman for Donald Trump said students from Covington high school may be invited to the White House

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How conservative media transformed the Covington Catholic students from pariahs to heroes

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Conservatives have realized they can construct a parallel reality and have it accepted

In just four days, teenager Nick Sandmann and his fellow students at Covington Catholic high school have gone from social media pariahs to conservative heroes.

On Tuesday night, Fox News hosts continued to feast on the controversy, which was sparked by a standoff between Covington Catholic high school students and a Native American veteran called Nathan Phillips. Footage show students wearing pro-Trump Maga hats taunting the Omaha tribe elder. The relentlessly repeated talking point — that there was a collective “rush to judgment” on the boys because they were Trump supporters – was used by conservative anchors Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham to attack mainstream media and left leaning social media users.

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Controversy over students mocking Native American strikes national chord

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Debate around the incident reverberated culturally and politically amplified by an aggressive entry into the argument by Trump

The spectacle of a crowd of white teens in pro-Trump caps mocking a Native American activist on the National Mall just days before Martin Luther King Jr day was perhaps not needed to demonstrate that America’s social fabric is stretched thin.

The explosion of a media controversy around the incident was probably not necessary to drive participants in the ensuing debate into their usual partisan crouches.

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