Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The latest on Texas’ latest mass shooting: “A man suspected of using an AR-15 rifle to kill five neighbors execution-style continued to elude an army of law enforcement hunting for him outside Houston over the weekend. Authorities said Sunday afternoon that Francisco Oropesa, 38, appeared to have slipped past a 2-mile dragnet of more than 150 law enforcement officers in Cleveland, Texas, about 45 miles north of Houston, on Saturday.”
* In related news: “Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday called the victims of a mass shooting in Texas over the weekend ‘illegal immigrants,’ drawing searing backlash for ‘dehumanizing’ them.”
* Another mass shooting in Philadelphia: “Two teenagers have been charged with firearms and related offenses following the slaying of three people and the wounding of a fourth person at a northeast Philadelphia home, authorities said.”
* Banking sector: “First Republic Bank has been taken over by federal regulators and will be sold to JPMorgan — making it the third major bank to go under in less than two months. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced simultaneously Monday morning that it had seized the bank and that JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in America, would be purchasing substantially all of the bank’s assets and deposits.”
* This obviously wasn’t going to work: “A federal judge in New York on Monday denied former President Donald Trump’s bid for a mistrial in writer E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit alleging that Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s.”
* Montana’s latest step backwards: “Montana became the latest state to ban or restrict gender-affirming medical care for transgender kids Friday when its Republican governor signed legislation that exiled transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr told fellow lawmakers would leave ‘blood’ on their hands.”
* On a related note: “Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr asked a court Monday to allow for her return to the House floor after she was silenced and barred for chiding her Republican colleagues over legislation to restrict gender-affirming health care and for encouraging protesters.”
* In the wake of last week’s Disney lawsuit: “The local governing board that oversees much of Walt Disney World voted Monday to sue the company as part of an ongoing political feud fueled by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The five-person Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board voted unanimously to sue Disney in state court less than a week after the company filed its own lawsuit against both DeSantis and the board, among a handful of other officials.”
* What an awful story: “A white California ‘mom influencer’ was convicted of fabricating a story about a Latino couple trying to kidnap her children outside of a store. Katie Sorensen, 31, was found guilty of one count of making a false report of a crime, the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office said on Thursday. She was taken into custody on $100,000 bail.”
See you tomorrow.
