Wreck in Oklahoma kills 6 teen girls
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Six teenage girls on a high school lunch break were killed when their small car with only four seats collided with a large truck hauling rocks, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said Wednesday.
Only the 16-year-old driver and front-seat passenger were wearing seat belts when the 2015 Chevrolet Spark collided with the truck Tuesday afternoon, according to the highway patrol.
The crash occurred in Tishomingo, a rural city of about 3,000 that's 100 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, the highway patrol said. Killed were the 16-year-old driver, three 15-year-olds and two 17-year-olds, the patrol said.
The crash occurred about a mile from Tishomingo High School. Students in the district of about 850 students were in class Wednesday, said Tishomingo Public School Superintendent Bobby Waitman.
"Academics are secondary, frankly, at this point, to the students knowing that they belong, that they have a safe place," Waitman said. "You'll never fully understand, I don't think we'll ever fully understand a loss like this."
The girls' names weren't released because they are youths.
The highway patrol identified the driver of the truck as Valendon Burton, 51, of Burneyville, Okla., who was not injured.
The circumstances of the wreck remained under investigation.
Manafort said to be removed from flight
MIAMI -- Paul Manafort, a former Donald Trump adviser, was removed from a plane at Miami International Airport before it took off for Dubai because he had a revoked passport, officials said Wednesday.
Miami-Dade police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta confirmed that Manafort was removed from the Emirates Airline flight without incident Sunday night.
Manafort, 72, led Trump's presidential campaign for several months during the 2016 race but was ousted after revelations about his business dealings in Ukraine.
He was later indicted on a broad array of financial crimes as part of then-special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. He was convicted by a jury in August 2018 and later pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington.
In May 2020, Manafort was released from a low-security prison where he was serving a more than seven-year federal sentence amid concerns about the coronavirus.
Trump pardoned Manafort in December 2020.
Trump pulls endorsement in Alabama race
MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday rescinded his endorsement of Rep. Mo Brooks in Alabama's U.S. Senate race.
In a statement, Trump cited Brooks' performance in the race and what Trump perceived as Brooks' attempt to move Republicans beyond the former president's 2020 election fraud claims. Trump said he will make another endorsement in the "near future."
"Very sad but, since he decided to go in another direction, so have I, and I am hereby withdrawing my Endorsement of Mo Brooks for the Senate," Trump said. "I don't think the great people of Alabama will disagree with me."
Trump had backed Brooks in April, more than a year before the upcoming May 24 primary, rewarding the ally who whipped up a crowd of Trump supporters at the Jan. 6, 2021, rally that preceded the Capitol insurrection.
Brooks has since found himself in a primary battle with two opponents: Katie Britt, the former head of a state business group, and Mike Durant, a businessman best known as the helicopter pilot shot down and held prisoner in the 1993 "Black Hawk Down" incident.
The race will decide who replaces retiring Sen. Richard Shelby, a fellow Republican. Britt previously served as Shelby's chief of staff.
Sentence-cutting bid denied in '90 killing
CONCORD, N.H. -- Pamela Smart, a former high school employee convicted of recruiting her teenage lover to kill her husband, was denied a sentence reduction hearing Wednesday, more than 30 years after a trial that inspired books and a Nicole Kidman movie.
Smart was 22 and working as a high school media coordinator when she began an affair with the 15-year-old student who shot and killed her husband, Gregory Smart, in 1990. Although she denied knowledge of the plot, she was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and other crimes and sentenced to life without parole.
The student, William Flynn, and three other teens cooperated with prosecutors, served shorter sentences and have been released.
Smart's request was rejected in a 5-0 vote by a New Hampshire state council. It's the third time Smart has asked for a hearing. Now 54, she has exhausted her appeal options.
"I am absolutely convinced that there's no evidence or argument" to grant a commutation request, councilor Janet Stevens said in a short discussion.
Smart had apologized to her husband's family for the first time. "I offer no excuses for my actions and behavior," she said in a recorded statement that was sent to the attorney general's office in December. "I'm to blame."
Rep. Mo Brooks speaks with reporters Wednesday in Hueytown, Ala., after former President Donald Trump rescinded his endorsement of Brooks’ candidacy for a U.S. Senate seat. (AP/Kimberly Chandler)