Alabama schools missing 5,000 pupils
MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Preliminary reports indicate that more than 5,000 Alabama public school students haven't shown up for any sort of classes, virtual or in-person, state Education Superintendent Eric Mackey said.
The students are likely to have a hard time catching up, and the enrollment drop could mean the loss of hundreds of teachers, he said.
"It's a very difficult year instructionally, and that doesn't even touch the surface on the issues we will have with these 5,000 students who are not in school and we don't know where they are," he said.
Because the state funding formula is based on enrollment, losing the students could hit next year's budget hard. Mackey told The Montgomery Advertiser that he's hoping the Legislature will make a temporary change to avoid that, perhaps basing allocations on average enrollment for the past couple of years.
Mackey said some of the missing students may have enrolled in private schools.
Others have returned, but too late for the official enrollment count, which ends each year 20 days after Labor Day.
"I have every expectation that once the pandemic ends, all of those students will come back," Mackey said.
Public schools lost about 4,700 students in 2018, but Mackey said this drop is more significant.
U.S. to appeal ruling in Trump sex suit
NEW YORK -- The Justice Department will appeal a federal judge's ruling blocking its intervention on President Donald Trump's behalf in a defamation lawsuit filed by a woman who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s.
Lawyers for the department's Civil Division on Wednesday afternoon filed a one-sentence notice of appeal indicating their intention to continue to try to represent Trump in the case filed by E. Jean Carroll.
In U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan's 59-page ruling issued a month ago, he said Trump was not an "employee" under the federal law that Justice Department lawyers referred to to justify their entry into the case. The judge also decided that Trump's comments denying the accusation did not amount to White House official business.
Since then, Kaplan has ordered the law firm of Marc Kasowitz, which has long represented Trump in personal matters, to step in again on Trump's behalf.
If successful in getting back into the case, the Justice Department could argue that the lawsuit should be voided under the theory of "sovereign immunity," which prevents lawsuits against the government from going forward.
Carroll's lawyer Roberta Kaplan said she is "not at all surprised" that the Justice Department attorneys are still fighting "at the request of the White House."
In her 2019 memoir, Carroll accused Trump of sexually assaulting her inside a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan.
Caretakers of mentally ill man charged
CHICAGO -- A Chicago couple acting as caretakers for a mentally ill man and a third person have been charged with murder in the man's slaying, authorities said.
Chicago police found the bruised body of Frederick Johnson in the couple's South Side garage on June 25. He died from multiple blunt force trauma injuries.
Santino Carter, 38; Dominique Beck, 29; and Brian Gray, 48, each have been charged with first-degree murder in Johnson's death. Beck also is charged with neglect as a caregiver.
Carter and Beck collected Johnson's disability checks to serve as his caretakers in their home for about two years, Cook County prosecutors said Wednesday. Johnson, who was in his 40s, had schizoaffective and bipolar disorders and a history of seizures, prosecutors said.
Johnson's bruised body was found after an anonymous tip, authorities said.
Beck, claiming to be his sister, had reported Johnson missing two days earlier, Assistant State's Attorney James Murphy said in court.
After a police investigation and the arrest of the three suspects, Beck told investigators that the death happened after Johnson defecated in the home and exposed himself to the couple's children, Murphy said.
Service to honor police dog killed on job
LA VERGNE, Tenn. -- A Tennessee police department has set a December memorial service for a K-9 officer fatally shot last week.
The La Vergne Police Department on Thursday said a memorial service for the K-9 Sjaak will be held Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Lifepoint Church in Smyrna. Seating is limited because of coronavirus safety measures, and the department has asked attendees to wear masks.
The dog was shot three times last week when its handler, officer Justin Darby, pulled out of the department parking lot and another vehicle pulled up beside the officer's car and began shooting, authorities said. The gunman then drove to an apartment complex, where he got out and shot at pursuing officers, who returned fire, officials said.
The suspect, later identified as Javon Brice, 39, had a bullet wound and was declared dead at the hospital, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said.
Sjaak, who was on the police force since 2014, underwent surgery for the wounds but did not survive.