Crash in Utah kills 4 Chinese speakers
SALT LAKE CITY -- A bus carrying Chinese-speaking tourists crashed as it headed to a national park in southern Utah, killing four people and critically injuring up to 15 others, authorities said Friday.
The morning wreck near Bryce Canyon National Park, known for its distinctive landscape of narrow red rock spires, left 12 to 15 people with critical injuries and 10 more with minor to serious injuries, the Utah Highway Patrol tweeted.
The tour bus with 30 people aboard crashed near a highway rest stop about 7 miles from the park entrance. It's not yet clear what caused the wreck.
Photos show the top of a white bus smashed in and one side peeling away as the vehicle rests mostly off the side of a road near a sign for restrooms.
Highway Patrol Cpl. Chris Bishop said the injured were sent to three hospitals. Intermountain Garfield Memorial Hospital in Panguitch said it received 17 patients.
A spokesman for the small hospital about 70 miles north of Arizona tweeted that three people were in critical condition, 11 in serious condition and three in fair condition.
NYC mayor ends bid for presidency
NEW YORK -- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio ended his campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination on Friday after struggling to gain traction in a sprawling field of candidates.
Announcing his decision in an MSNBC interview, de Blasio did not throw his support behind any candidate but said he would support the eventual Democratic nominee "with energy."
"I feel like I've contributed all I can to this primary election, and it's clearly not my time," de Blasio told the hosts of Morning Joe. "So I'm going to end my presidential campaign, continue my work as mayor of New York City, and I'm going to keep speaking up for working people and for a Democratic Party that stands for working people."
President Donald Trump, no fan of de Blasio, tweeted: "Oh no, really big political news, perhaps the biggest story in years! Part time Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, who was polling at a solid ZERO but had tremendous room for growth, has shocking dropped out of the Presidential race. NYC is devastated, he's coming home!"
The 58-year-old mayor launched his bid in May but never achieved higher than 1% in a national poll.
De Blasio joins Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; Washington Gov. Jay Inslee; Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass.; former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper; and Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., who have all left the Democratic primary race.
Trump deposition ordered in lawsuit
NEW YORK -- A New York judge Friday ordered President Donald Trump to give a videotaped deposition in a lawsuit filed by protesters who claim they were roughed up outside Trump Tower in 2015.
State Supreme Court Judge Doris Gonzalez of the Bronx denied Trump's effort to quash the subpoena, ordering him to videotape a deposition for the trial before jury selection begins Sept. 26.
The lawsuit stems from a Sept. 3, 2015, protest outside Trump Tower over negative comments Trump made about Mexico and Mexican migrants when he began his presidential campaign that summer.
Six protesters of Mexican origin who claimed they were assaulted sued Trump, the Trump Organization, his presidential campaign and security personnel.
The judge wrote that Trump's testimony is "indispensable," given his relationship to the other defendants, who are described in court papers as either employees or under contract.
Trump's argument that there must be "exceptional circumstances" to depose a high-ranking government official did not apply here, she said, because he is being called to answer for conduct outside of office.
"The decision today stands for the proposition that no one is above the law, including Mr. Trump," said Benjamin Dictor, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
Two lawyers for Trump did not respond to phone messages.
Alabama faces abortion-law legal fees
MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- A federal judge has ordered Alabama to pay more than $675,000 to lawyers for abortion clinics who successfully challenged the state's attempt to ban an abortion procedure.
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson on Friday ordered Alabama to pay $675,964 in legal fees. The state is responsible for the legal fees after the 2016 law was struck down as unconstitutional.
The law sought to ban the second-trimester abortion procedure known as dilation and evacuation. Abortion clinics filed a lawsuit and a judge ruled the ban unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court in June refused to hear the state's appeal.
The lawsuit also successfully challenged a law blocking clinics near schools.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 09/21/2019