• Singer Chris Brown walked off stage after his concert in Florida and into the hands of waiting deputies, who arrested him Thursday on a felony battery charge involving a nightclub photographer last year. The entertainer is in the middle of his Heartbreak on a Full Moon Tour. On Friday, Tampa police released more details about the battery warrant after Brown posted $2,000 bond to be released from the Palm Beach County jail. The warrant accuses Brown of hitting Bennie Vines Jr., who was hired by a club in Tampa to take pictures during an event hosted by Brown in April 2017. Vines told officers Brown punched him while he was snapping photos. Brown was gone by the time officers arrived that night. Vines refused medical treatment, but he told the officers that he wanted to prosecute over a minor lip cut. Emails to Brown's agents weren't immediately returned. Brown has been in repeated legal trouble since pleading guilty to the felony assault in 2009 of his then-girlfriend, Rihanna. He completed his probation in that case in 2015. In 2013, Brown was charged with misdemeanor assault after he was accused of striking a man outside a Washington hotel. He was ordered into rehab but spent 2½ months in custody, with U.S. marshals shuttling him between Los Angeles and the nation's capital for hearings. After he completed court-ordered anger-management classes, Brown was accused of throwing a brick at his mother's car following a counseling session.
• President Donald Trump drew a rebuke Thursday night from Ari Fleischer, George W. Bush's White House press secretary, after Trump mocked the "thousand points of light" volunteer effort of Bush's father during a campaign-style rally in Montana. "This is so uncalled for," Fleischer wrote on Twitter, using the acronym for President of the United States. "Going after a 94-year-old, former President's promotion of volunteerism. I don't mind potus being a fighter. I do mind him being rude." Trump took aim at the slogan used by the 41st president, George H.W. Bush, during a freewheeling speech Thursday. "I know one thing: 'Make America Great Again' we understand. 'Putting America First' we understand. 'Thousand points of light?' I never got that one. What the hell is that? Has anyone figured that out? It was put out by a Republican." In his inaugural speech in January 1989, George H.W. Bush promoted volunteerism, saying: "I have spoken of a thousand points of light, of all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the nation, doing good." Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush, who died in April, created the Points of Light Foundation for volunteerism in 1990.
A Section on 07/07/2018