20 shot in NYC, 4 fatally, over weekend
NEW YORK — A wave of violence swept New York City over the weekend as 20 people were shot, four of them fatally, authorities said Monday.
The shootings, which included the separate woundings of 10- and 12-year-old boys, made for the third weekend in June during which at least a dozen people were shot, police said. In the last week of June, 35 people were shot, down from 39 gunshot victims the same week a year ago, according to New York Police Department statistics. A breakdown between those killed and those wounded was not immediately available.
This year, 611 people have been shot in the city compared with 554 for the same period last year.
“We’ve had an increase, a temporary increase, in shootings,” Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said. “Crime goes up, it goes down.”
Bratton said more than 1,000 young graduates of the city’s Police Academy will soon be hitting city streets, partnering with veteran officers in the most violent, crime-ridden neighborhoods.
Rates increase on new student loans
WASHINGTON — Interest rates go up today for students taking out new federal loans. The increase is relatively minimal but is seen as possibly foreshadowing more increases.
The change stems from a bipartisan deal brokered last year by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama that ties the rates to the financial markets.
Interest rates go from 3.86 percent to 4.66 percent on undergraduate Stafford loans. Graduate student loan rates go from 5.41 percent to 6.21 percent. Interest rates on Plus loans for parents go from 6.41 percent to 7.21 percent.
For every $10,000 borrowed, the average borrower under the increase will pay back about $4 more every month than when he begin paying back the money.
If the economy continues to improve, however, the rate increases could continue. Congress stipulated that the rates for new loans be reset annually, but that borrowers keep the rate they were given for the life of the loan.
The compromise in Congress was reached after rates doubled last July.
Students take out new loans each year, so by the time they graduate they could be repaying loans that have different interest rates.
1 still critical from New Orleans shooting
NEW ORLEANS — One person remained in critical condition Monday after a weekend gunfight on Bourbon Street.
Police said 10 people were hit when shots rang out about 2:45 a.m. Sunday. Five remained hospitalized at LSU Hospital. In addition to the critical patient, four were stable.
Victims’ identities and hometowns have not been made public, but police said some were not from New Orleans.
Images captured from a surveillance camera above a bar showed people running down the street in the chaos of the shooting. Police placed several views of the shootout online asking for the public’s help in identifying the two shooters.
The violence happened as New Orleans prepares for a major summer tourist event: The annual Essence Festival opens Thursday and runs through the Fourth of July weekend.
Judge tosses Zimmerman defamation suit
ORLANDO, Fla. — A Florida judge on Monday dismissed the defamation lawsuit filed by George Zimmerman against NBC and three reporters, saying the former neighborhood watch leader failed to show the network acted with malice.
Judge Debra Nelson said the malice standard was appropriate, because Zimmerman became a public figure after he shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford in February 2012, generating a national conversation about race and self-defense laws.
Zimmerman was acquitted last year for Martin’s shooting. He said he shot Martin in self-defense when the teenager attacked him. Martin was black. Zimmerman is Hispanic.
Zimmerman “voluntarily injected his views into the public controversy surrounding race relations and public safety in Sanford and pursued a course of conduct that ultimately led to the death of Martin and the specific controversy surrounding it,” said Nelson, who presided over Zimmerman’s criminal trial last summer.
In his lawsuit, Zimmerman said NBC’s editing of a story on the shooting made it sound as if Zimmerman voluntarily told an operator that Martin was black. He was actually responding to a dispatcher’s question about the Miami teen’s race.
— COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS