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- Dallas police officer who was fatally shot remembered as ‘hero’ during funeral serviceon September 7, 2024 at 11:18 pm
Dallas police officer Darron Burks, who was fatally shot in what the police chief called an execution, was remembered Saturday as a hero during a funeral service in Dallas. “A hero who made the ultimate sacrifice … the grief is overwhelming,” said Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia during the nearly two-hour-long service that was often marked by applause for Burks’ mother, Cherie Jeffery, and laughter at memories of Burks. “He loved me every day, he didn’t wait until my birthday” or various holidays, Jeffery said as she stood next to a portrait of Burks in his uniform, adding that her son texted her daily. “Darron loved everybody.” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said Burks was “tragically taken, targeted” because he was a police officer. Burks was “a hero … with a spirit of service and selflessness,” Johnson said. Bagpipes played and mourners streamed past his open coffin that was draped with a U.S. flag and uniformed police officers at either end until the casket was closed for the service. Burks, 46, was sitting in his patrol car Aug. 29 when he was fatally shot by 30-year-old Corey Cobb-Bey, who spoke briefly with Burks and recorded the encounter before pulling out a handgun and shooting Burks, according to police. “I know the word ambush has been thrown around … that’s not what happened here,” Garcia said following the shooting. “Officer Burks was executed.” Cobb-Bey shot and wounded two other officers as they arrived, then fled the scene and was pursued by police to Lewisville, Texas, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Dallas, police said. When Cobb-Bey’s vehicle came to a stop on Interstate 35, he exited with a shotgun in his hand and pointed it at officers. Six officers opened fire, killing Cobb-Bey who was struck multiple times, police said. Burks joined the police force in December after graduating from the police academy. He previously spent 17 years as a high school math teacher. Gov. Greg Abbott, at the request of Johnson, said state of Texas and United States flags could be lowered to half-staff on Saturday to honor Burks. “The First Lady and I extend prayers of comfort for the Burks family during their time of grief, and we urge all Texans to remember and honor Officer Burks’ service as a dedicated and trusted law enforcement officer,” Abbott said in a letter to Johnson. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- Trump campaigns in Wisconsin GOP stronghold ahead of debate with Harrison September 7, 2024 at 10:55 pm
MOSINEE, Wis. (AP) — With just days to go before his first — and likely only — debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump leaned into his familiar themes about everything from his indictments to the border as he campaigned in one of the most deeply Republican swaths of battleground Wisconsin. “The Harris-Biden DOJ is trying to throw me in jail — they want me in jail — for the crime of exposing their corruption,” Trump claimed at an outdoor rally at Central Wisconsin Airport, where he spoke behind a wall of bullet-proof glass due to new security protocols following his July assassination attempt. Trump has eschewed traditional debate preparation, choosing to holding rallies and events while Harris has been cloistered in a historic hotel in downtown Pittsburgh, working with aides since Thursday to prepare for Tuesday’s debate in Philadelphia. Harris has agreed so far to a single debate, which will be hosted by ABC. At the rally, Trump outlined his plans to “Drain the swamp” — a throwback to his winning 2016 campaign message as he ran as an outsider challenging the status quo. He vowed anew to “cast out the corrupt political class” if he wins again and to “cut the fat out of our government for the first time, meaningfully, in 60 years.” As part of that effort, he repeated his plan, announced Thursday, to create a new “Government Efficiency Commission” headed by Elon Musk that will be charged with conducting “a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government” to root out waste. After again maligning the Congressional committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the nation’s capitol, Trump told the crowd of thousands that he would “rapidly review the cases of every political prisoner unjustly victimized by the Harris regime” and sign their pardons on his first day back in office. And he said he would “completely overhaul” what he labeled “Kamala’s corrupt Department of Injustice.” “Instead of persecuting Republicans, they will focus on taking down bloodthirsty cartels, transnational gangs, and radical Islamic terrorists,” he said. Both Harris and Trump have been frequent visitors to Wisconsin this year, a state where four of the past six presidential elections have been decided by less than a percentage point. Several polls of Wisconsin voters conducted after Biden withdrew showed Harris and Trump in a close race. The crowd in Mosinee was greeted by a big screen video of Trump urging attendees to check their voter registration and make a plan for voting. “If we swamp them, they can’t cheat,” Trump said, continuing to raise unfounded concerns about voter fraud, which is extremely rare. Democrats consider Wisconsin to be one of the must-win “blue wall” states. Biden, who was in Wisconsin on Thursday, won the state in 2020 by just under 21,000 votes. Trump carried it by a slightly larger margin, nearly 23,000 votes, in 2016. As Trump was campaigning, Harris took a short break from debate prep on Saturday to stop at Penzeys Spices in Pittsburgh’s Strip District, where she bought several seasoning mixes. One customer saw the Democratic nominee and began openly weeping as Harris hugged her and said, “We’re going to be fine. We’re all in this together.” Trump held his rally in the central Wisconsin city of Mosinee, with a population of about 4,500 people. It is within Wisconsin’s mostly rural 7th Congressional District, a reliably Republican area in a purple state. Trump carried the county where Mosinee is located by 18 percentage points in both 2016 and 2020. During his speech, he railed against Harris saying that if the woman he calls “Comrade Kamala Harris gets four more years, you will be living (in) a full-blown Banana Republic” ruled by “anarchy” and “tyranny.” He also railed against the administration’s border policies, calling the Democrats’ approach “suicidal” and accusing them of having “imported murderers, child predators and serial rapists from all over the planet.” Many supporters embarked on hours-long drives from across Wisconsin to see Trump speak. Some came from even further. Sean Moon, a Tennessee musician who releases MAGA-themed rap music under the stage name, “King Bullethead,” blasted his songs from a truck in the event parking lot. As a musician, he said Trump rallies approximate the experience of a raucous concert. “Trump is a rockstar,” Moon said. “He’s incredible. People see he represents them and the deep state trying to kill him and take him out. But he’s standing strong, and he stands for the normal person.” Republicans held their national convention in Milwaukee in July and Trump has made four previous stops to the state, most recently just last week in the western Wisconsin city of La Crosse. Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, last month filled the same Milwaukee arena where Republicans held their national convention for a rally that coincided with the Democratic National Convention just 90 miles away in Chicago. Walz returned Monday to Milwaukee, where he spoke at a Labor Day rally organized by unions. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- Evacuations ordered as wildfire burns in foothills of national forest east of LAon September 7, 2024 at 10:18 pm
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — Evacuations were ordered Saturday as a wildfire scorched the foothills of a national forest east of Los Angeles, amid a days-long heat wave that pushed temperatures into the triple digits across the region. The so-called Line Fire was burning uncontrolled along the edge of the San Bernardino National Forest, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) east of LA. As of Saturday afternoon, the blaze charred about 11 square miles (28 square km) of grass and chaparral, leaving a thick cloud of dark smoke blanketing the area. The fire began Thursday evening, and the cause is under investigation. About 500 firefighters were battling the blaze, supported by water-dropping helicopters that hovered over homes and hillsides, along with aircraft. Firefighters said the blaze had the “potential for large fire growth” in the next 12 hours. No injuries were reported, and no homes or other structures had been damaged or destroyed. The National Weather Service said downtown Los Angeles hit a high of 112 degrees Fahrenheit (44 Celsius) Friday, which marked the third time since 1877 that a high of 112 degrees or more has been reached there. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- Wynn Resorts paying $130M for letting illegal money reach gamblers at its Las Vegas Strip casinoon September 7, 2024 at 10:18 pm
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Casino company Wynn Resorts Ltd. has agreed to pay $130 million to federal authorities and admit that it let unlicensed money transfer businesses around the world funnel funds to gamblers at its flagship Las Vegas Strip property. The publicly traded company said a non-prosecution settlement reached Friday represented a monetary figure identified by the U.S. Justice Department as “funds involved in the transactions at issue” at the Wynn Las Vegas resort. In statements to the media and to the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said the forfeiture wasn’t a fine and findings in the decade-long case didn’t amount to money laundering. U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath in San Diego said the settlement showed that casinos are accountable if they let foreign customers evade U.S. laws. She said $130 million was believed to be the largest forfeiture by a casino “based on admissions of criminal wrongdoing.” Wynn Resorts said it severed ties with all people and businesses involved in what the government characterized as “convoluted transactions” overseas. “Several former employees facilitated the use of unlicensed money transmitting businesses, which both violated our internal policies and the law, and for which we take responsibility,” the company said in a statement Saturday to The Associated Press. In its news release, the Justice Department detailed several methods it said were used to transfer money between Wynn Las Vegas and people in China and other countries. One, dubbed “Flying Money,” involved an unlicensed money agent using multiple foreign bank accounts to transfer money to the casino for use by a patron who could not otherwise access cash in the U.S. Another involved having a person referred to as a “Human Head” gamble at the casino at the direction of another person who was unwilling or unable to place bets because of anti-money laundering and other laws. The Justice Department said one person, acting as an independent agent for the casino, conducted more than 200 money transfers worth nearly $18 million through bank accounts controlled by Wynn Las Vegas “or associated entities” on behalf of more than 50 foreign casino patrons. Wynn Resorts called its agreement with the government a final step in a six-year effort to “put legacy issues fully behind us and focus on our future.” The SEC filing noted the investigation began about 2014. It did not use the name of former CEO Steve Wynn. But since 2018, the parent company has been enmeshed with legal issues surrounding his departure after sexual misconduct allegations against him were first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Wynn attorneys in Las Vegas did not respond Saturday to messages about the company settlement. Wynn, now 82 and living in Florida, has said he has no remaining ties to his namesake company. He has consistently denied committing sexual misconduct. The billionaire developer of a luxury casino empire in Las Vegas, Massachusetts, Mississippi and the Chinese gambling enclave of Macao resigned from Wynn Resorts after the reports became public, divested company shares and quit the corporate board. Last year, in an agreement with Nevada gambling regulators, he agreed to cut links to the industry he helped shape in Las Vegas and pay a $10 million fine. He admitted no wrongdoing. In 2019, the Nevada Gaming Commission fined Wynn Resorts a record $20 million for failing to investigate claims of sexual misconduct made against him before he resigned. Massachusetts gambling regulators fined the company and a top executive $35.5 million for failing to disclose the sexual misconduct allegations against Wynn while it applied for a license for its Encore Boston Harbor resort. The company made no admissions of wrongdoing. Wynn Resorts agreed in November 2019 to accept $20 million in damages from Wynn and $21 million from insurance carriers to settle shareholder lawsuits accusing company directors of failing to disclose misconduct allegations. The Justice Department said Friday that as part of its investigation, 15 people previously admitted money laundering, unlicensed money transmission or other crimes, paying criminal penalties of more than $7.5 million. Wynn Resorts noted in its statement on Friday that its non-prosecution agreement with the government did not refer to money laundering. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- Florida high school football player dies after collapsing during gameon September 7, 2024 at 9:18 pm
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — A Florida Panhandle high school football player has died after collapsing during a game, officials said. Port St. Joe High School wide receiver and defensive back Chance Gainer collapsed during Friday night’s game at Liberty County High School. The 18-year-old senior was playing cornerback when a play went to the opposite side of the field, said Tim Davis, Port St. Joe’s athletic director and vice principal. Gainer was running toward the play when he collapsed, Davis told the Northwest Florida Daily News. “He just went to the ground suddenly,” Davis said. Coaches ran to his side and then signaled for paramedics. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he died. Gainer had scored on a 70-yard touchdown earlier in the game and had returned a kickoff 83 yards for a touchdown last week. Davis said there were about four minutes left in Friday’s game when administrators learned of Gainer’s death. The decision was made to let the game finish, with Port St. Joe winning 28-0. Gainer’s teammates were then told of his death. “The scene was heartbreaking. Parents came down on the field to comfort their kids. Such a helpless feeling,” Davis said. A police escort led the Port St. Joe team bus to the hospital where Gainer had died before the players returned home. Gainer was an honors student and had recently visited Vanderbilt University to discuss attending there, Gulf County School Superintendent Jim Norton told WJHG-TV. Gainer “had world-class speed, but more importantly, had a world-class personality,” Norton said. Port St. Joe’s game next week has been canceled. The National Federation of State High School Associations said last week that six high school players had died within the past month, four of them from heart issues and two from being hit. ___ This version corrects that Friday’s game was not canceled after Gainer’s collapse. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
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