Wisconsin's Evers vetoes 5 abortion bills
MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin's Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed five Republican-authored anti-abortion bills on Friday, two days after the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a Mississippi case that could curtail if not end a woman's right to abortion.
Evers, who is making his support for abortion rights a key plank of his 2022 reelection campaign, had been widely expected to veto the measures passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature in October.
"I've said it before, and I'll say it again today: as long as I'm governor, I will veto any legislation that turns back the clock on reproductive rights in this state -- and that's a promise," Evers tweeted in announcing the vetoes.
Republican lawmakers, who do not have enough votes to override the vetoes, did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
One bill would have imposed criminal penalties on doctors who fail to give medical care in the rare circumstance in which a baby is born alive after an abortion attempt. A second bill would have required doctors to provide parents of fetuses and embryos that test positive for a congenital condition information about the condition. A third proposal would have prohibited abortions based on a fetus' sex, race or national origin.
A fourth measure would have reduced funding for abortion providers by prohibiting them from being certified as a Medicaid provider. The fifth vetoed bill would have required doctors to tell women seeking a medication-induced abortion that she could change her mind after ingesting the first dose and continue the pregnancy.
Gun-makers ruled not liable in massacre
CARSON CITY, Nev. -- Nevada's Supreme Court ruled gun manufacturers cannot be held responsible for the deaths in the 2017 mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip because a state law shields them from liability unless the weapon malfunctions.
Stephen Paddock used an AR-15 with a bump stock when he fired 1,049 rounds in 10 just minutes on the crowd of 22,000 from his suite in a casino-resort tower.
The parents of a woman who was among the 58 killed filed a wrongful-death suit against Colt Manufacturing Co. and several other gun manufacturers in 2019.
The suit said the gun companies "knowingly manufactured and sold weapons designed to shoot automatically because they were aware their AR-15s could be easily modified with bump stocks to do so, thereby violating federal and state machinegun prohibitions."
In a unanimous decision, Nevada's highest court sided with the manufacturers, ruling that Nevada law immunizes them from civil actions, "with a single exception for products liability actions involving design or production defects that cause the firearm to malfunction."
Supermarket suspect held not fit for trial
DENVER -- A man charged with killing 10 people at a Colorado supermarket earlier this year has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial, a judge ruled Friday.
Ahwad Al Aliwi Alissa, 22, is accused of opening fire at a King Soopers in Boulder in March -- killing a police officer, shoppers and several store employees.
District Attorney Michael Dougherty said four doctors determined that Alissa isn't mentally competent to participate in court proceedings. He requested that Alissa be sent to the state mental hospital for treatment.
Dougherty did not disclose why the experts determined that Alissa is not competent. Alissa's defense attorney, Kathryn Herold, who said Friday her client has a "serious" mental illness, did not provide more detail.
Judge Ingrid Bakke ordered Alissa be sent to the mental hospital. The ruling halts virtually all proceedings in the case, pending any improvement in Alissa's condition.
14 LA smash-and-grab suspects arrested
LOS ANGELES -- Authorities in Los Angeles announced 14 arrests in recent smash-and-grab thefts at stores where nearly $340,000 worth of merchandise was stolen, part of a rash of organized retail crime in California.
The suspects were arrested in connection with 11 robberies between Nov. 18 and 28, and all have been released from custody, Police Chief Michel Moore said Thursday. Most bailed out or met no-bail criteria, and one is a juvenile, he said.
Moore said at least $338,000 in goods were stolen over 10 days from stores and malls, which incurred $40,000 in property damage. Investigators are still searching for multiple suspects, he said.
The incidents were part of a run of large-scale thefts in California and across the nation in which groups of individuals shoplift en masse from stores or smash and grab from display cases.
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin last week announced felony charges against nine people for a series of thefts, and Bay Area prosecutors announced a joint effort to combat organized retail theft.
At a joint news conference, both Moore and Mayor Eric Garcetti called for an end to no-bail policies for some defendants originally aimed at reducing jail overcrowding during the coronavirus pandemic.