The Nation in Brief

Retired Marine Rob Reed pets his service dog, Kimball, during Healing Paws for Warriors graduation ceremony for veterans/ canine service teams Friday in Niceville, Fla.
Retired Marine Rob Reed pets his service dog, Kimball, during Healing Paws for Warriors graduation ceremony for veterans/ canine service teams Friday in Niceville, Fla.

Navy says 11 sailors injured in ship fire

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The U.S. Navy said 11 sailors suffered minor injuries when fire broke out Friday on the USS Iwo Jima, now docked at the Naval Station Mayport near Jacksonville.

In a news release, the Navy said sailors on the amphibious assault ship reported smoke early Friday in a cargo hold. The Naval Station's fire department responded, joined by crews from the Jacksonville Fire Department.

The injured sailors were treated at the scene and released. Capt. Darrell Canady, the ship's commanding officer, said the sailors are "rigorously trained to combat casualties such as this fire."

The ship is undergoing maintenance at the base.

The Navy will investigate the cause of the fire and determine the amount of damage on board. The release says there was no damage to other ships.

Jury awards health group $1M over videos

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal jury Friday found that an anti-abortion activist illegally secretly recorded workers at Planned Parenthood clinics and is liable for violating federal and state laws. The jury ordered him and others to pay nearly $1 million in damages.

After a six-week civil trial, the San Francisco jury found David Daleiden trespassed on private property and committed other crimes in recording the 2015 videos. He and the Center for Medical Progress claimed Planned Parenthood illegally sells fetal tissue, which the group says it does not do.

Daleiden and a co-defendant, Sandra Merritt, are facing 14 counts each of invasion of privacy. They have pleaded innocent to those charges, arguing that they are undercover journalists shielded from prosecution.

Planned Parenthood sued the activists as part of what the group called "a multi-year illegal effort to manufacture a malicious campaign." It said punitive and compensatory damages from Friday's ruling total $2.3 million.

"The jury recognized today that those behind the campaign broke the law in order to advance their goals of banning safe, legal abortion in this country, and to prevent Planned Parenthood from serving the patients who depend on us," the organization's acting president and CEO, Alexis McGill Johnson, said in a statement.

Daleiden said the verdict was reached after a "biased judge with close Planned Parenthood ties spent six weeks trying to influence the jury with pre-determined rulings and suppressed the video evidence."

Daleiden and Merritt sneaked into numerous Planned Parenthood meetings and other abortion rights gatherings and shot undercover videos of their attempts to buy fetal material. They published the videos in 2015.

Border agent in Arizona shoots Russian

LUKEVILLE, Ariz. -- The U.S. Border Patrol reported that one of its agents shot and wounded a Russian man suspected of crossing the border illegally in Arizona.

The agency said Friday that the man was flown to a Phoenix hospital and is expected to survive.

The Border Patrol said the unidentified agent attempted to arrest the man Thursday just east of the border town Lukeville.

Authorities said a physical altercation followed and the agent shot the man. The agent was not seriously injured.

The Border Patrol has faced criticism over its use of force in the past, but the number of shootings has fallen over the past few years.

Earlier this month, an agent shot and killed a gunman who opened fire near Sunland Park, N.M.

Texas archdiocese challenges LGBT rule

AUSTIN, Texas -- A Texas archdiocese wants to become a foster care provider, but only if it can be exempt from adhering to federal safeguards against anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender discrimination.

The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston is joining the Texas attorney general's office and the Department of Family and Protective Services in challenging the rule that prohibits discrimination based on a person's sexual orientation, gender identity and other characteristics, the Houston Chronicle reported.

"The archdiocese may only provide foster care services consistent with its sincerely held beliefs on Catholic doctrine and social teaching," said the lawsuit filed on Oct. 31. "As such, the archdiocese cannot provide home studies and certifications for unmarried cohabitating or same-sex married couples."

A day after the lawsuit was filed, the federal Department of Health and Human Services revealed its plans to rewrite a President Barack Obama-era anti-discrimination rule to allow faith-based foster care and adoption agencies to exclude LGBT parents.

Child welfare advocates warn that the lawsuit could reduce the state's already scarce pool of foster parents.

"When you completely shut the door to many good people because they are same-sex or single parents, it isn't about fixing capacity, it's about restricting capacity to certain groups," said Will Francis, the executive director of the National Association of Social Workers Texas Chapter.

Neither Attorney General Ken Paxton nor the Family and Protective Services Department responded to the newspaper's request for comment.

-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports

A Section on 11/16/2019

Upcoming Events