Breaking: Trump asks Supreme Court to intervene in Mar-a-Lago docs case – National & International News – TUE 4Oct2022

Trump asks SCOTUS to intervene in Mar-a-Lago docs case. CA police hunt serial killer. Solar-powered town in FL never lost power during Ian. Iran leaders appeal for calm in protests.

NATIONAL NEWS

Breaking: Trump asks Supreme Court to intervene in Mar-a-Lago docs case

Former President Trump has asked the Supreme Court to stay a ruling from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in the Mar-a-Lago documents case. The 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, recently overruled Florida District Court Judge (and Trump appointee) Aileen Cannon, who had barred the Justice Department from using the documents seized by the FBI in its criminal investigation of Trump. The 11th Circuit panel that overruled Cannon comprised of two Trump appointees and one Obama appointee. In their decision, the 11th Circuit said that Cannon had made her ruling “in error”.

DOJ is now hoping the 11th Circuit will overrule Cannon a second time. Last week, DOJ filed an appeal asking the court to overturn Cannon’s ruling appointing a special master to oversee the investigation. Special master Raymond Dearie is tasked with reviewing 11,000 documents (amounting to about 200,000 pages) of non-classified material that Trump illegally carried off from the White House. Dearie’s review will take considerable time, which Trump’s team believes will work in their favor. So far, Trump’s legal team has not offered much in the way of justification for why Trump had the documents in the first place or why he refused to turn them over when subpoenaed.

Trump is asking the Supreme Court, which began a new session this week, to reverse the 11th Circuit’s decision to exclude 103 classified documents from Dearie’s review. If SCOTUS agrees to hear Trump’s case and overturns the 11th Circuit, that will again prevent DOJ from using the classified documents in its ongoing investigation. There’s no word yet on whether SCOTUS will agree to hear Trump’s case.

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CA police hunt serial killer linked to 7 shootings

Police in Stockton, CA, a city of over 300,000 50 miles south of Sacramento, believe that the same person has shot 7 people, 6 of them fatally, since April 2021. Investigators first found a link between the fatal shootings of 5 men (4 of them Hispanic), all of which have taken place since July 8. The latest killing occurred at 2am last Tuesday. Now, police believe this killing is also responsible for two other shootings that occurred in April last year. One of those victims, a 40-year-old black woman, survived her injuries.

So far, the ages of the victims range from 21 through 54. Police say the killer prefers to strike people walking alone at night. Even though the only commonality shared by the victims is that they were alone at night, Stockton police say the pattern matches that of a serial killer. There is no evidence in any of the killings of robbery or connection to any gang activity.

The killer has been careful to target people when there are no witnesses, so investigators have no reliable description of the killer. Police have released a grainy image from a surveillance image of someone they say is a person of interest. The image shows a person dressed all in black with a dark cap, but only from the back. Despite this, police say they have “located” a person of interest. There’s also speculation more than one person may be involved.

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Solar powered FL community never lost power during Ian

While tens of thousands of residents in Charlotte County, FL, are still without power nearly a week after Hurricane Ian came ashore, one community that gets 100% of its power from solar energy never lost power or internet service, even at the storm’s height. Babcock Ranch is just 20 minutes away from Ft. Myers in neighboring Lee County, which took the greatest damage from Ian.

Unlike many new developments in Florida, Babcock Ranch was built with environmental sustainability and climate resilience in mind. The community sits on higher ground, at least 25 feet above sea level. Its buildings are built to withstand 145 mph winds. Ian’s maximum sustained windspeed on land was 150mph. Still, Babcock Ranch sustained minimal damage compared to its neighbors.

The community’s solar panels are maintained by Florida Power and Light (FPL). Back in 2017 when the area suffered another direct hit from Hurricane Irma, “Out of 343,000 solar panels spanning 440 acres — none of them were dislodged, and only two panels had to be replaced due to damage from flying debris”. The solar field has now more than doubled to 900 acres containing nearly 700,000 solar panels.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Iran protests: Leaders appeal for calm, blame US and Israel

Nearly three weeks of protests led by women have clearly rattled the powers-that-be in Iran. The protests began when a 22-year-old Kurdish woman Zhina (or Mahsa) Amini died in police custody. The country’s morality police in Tehran arrested Amini for improperly wearing her headscarf. Police say she suffered a heart attack and died, while her family say she was beaten. Her death ignited protests in which women have burned their headscarves and cut their hair in a show of defiance to the regime. At several rallies, chants of “death to the dictator” have been heard. Despite an internet blackout by the government, protests have continued to spread to new cities and onto university and high school campuses.

Since the unrest began, Iran’s leadership has been flailing. They’ve simultaneously downplayed the protests and their importance, while blaming the US and Israel for stirring the protests to undermine the ruling elite. Today, Iran’s president, conservative hardliner Ebrahim Raisi, attempted to appeal for calm, calling for “unity” and again blaming outside influences for stoking the unrest.

Even as Iran’s leaders call for calm, their police are engaging in bloody crackdowns on unarmed protesters. Rights groups say so far at least 80 people have been killed.

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