Dallas police had taken steps to mend rift with minorities
DALLAS (AP) — When Micah Johnson opened fire on Dallas police in an act of vengeance against white officers, he was attacking a department whose chief has been lauded across the country for taking bold steps to root out bad cops and repair relations with minorities.
Police Chief David Brown, a black man who pushed through the reforms despite resistance from the rank-and-file, boasted at a news conference Monday that crime, police shootings and excessive-force complaints against the department have all dropped dramatically on his watch.
“This is the best department in the country, and I’m proud to be associated with the men and women of the Dallas Police Department,” he said.
Johnson, a black Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, killed five officers in a sniper attack Thursday that he portrayed as payback for the fatal police shootings of black men last week in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and near St. Paul, Minnesota. The attack ended with Johnson blown up by a bomb delivered by a police robot.
No evidence has come to light to suggest that the 25-year-old Johnson had a grudge specifically against the 3,400-officer Dallas Police Department.
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Family: Military changed Dallas suspect; robot use defended
DALLAS (AP) — Military service changed the Dallas gunman from an extrovert into a hermit, his parents said in an interview excerpt published Monday.
Micah Johnson’s mother, Delphine Johnson, told TheBlaze website in an interview that her son wanted to be a police officer as a child. His six years in the Army Reserve, including a tour in Afghanistan, were “not what Micah thought it would be … what he thought the military represented, it just didn’t live up to his expectations.” According to the military lawyer who represented him, Johnson was accused of sexually harassing a female soldier while deployed.
His father, James Johnson said haltingly and through tears: “I don’t know what to say to anybody to make anything better. I didn’t see it coming.”
The black 25-year-old fatally shot five officers in Thursday’s attack while hundreds of people were gathered in downtown Dallas to protest recent fatal police shootings, and wounded at least nine officers and two civilians.
Dallas Police Chief David Brown clarified Monday where Johnson was killed with a bomb delivered by a remote-controlled robot, saying that it happened on the second floor of El Centro College, not a parking garage as authorities previously described. Brown did not provide more details, including the locations of the negotiations that came before the bomb.
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10 Things to Know for Tuesday
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Tuesday:
1. OBAMA STEPPING INTO STORM OF EMOTION IN DALLAS SPEECH
When he pays tribute to fallen police officers in Texas on Tuesday, the president will need to comfort the mourning and calm the angry.
2. WHO HAD TAKEN STEPS TO MEND RIFT WITH MINORITIES
Dallas Police Chief David Brown says crime, police shootings and excessive-force complaints have all dropped dramatically on his watch.
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Stealth candidate Theresa May to be UK’s next leader
LONDON (AP) — After all of the flamboyant characters and very public backstabbing in the race to become Britain’s next prime minister, the winner turned out to be an understated workhorse who maintained a low profile throughout the campaign.
Home Secretary Theresa May, 59, is not well-known internationally, but she has served for six years in one of Britain’s toughest jobs, playing an important role in counter-terrorism policy, and will now take charge of delicate negotiations to separate Britain from the European Union.
She was less visible — and less talked-about as a likely future prime minister — than Treasury Chief George Osborne and former London Mayor Boris Johnson, but she proved to be the stealth candidate, outmaneuvering both in the intense competition to follow Cameron at 10 Downing Street.
During the EU referendum campaign, Osborne was passionate about remaining in the EU, and lost his leadership hopes when voters turned the other way. Johnson led the campaign to take Britain out of the EU, but never formally entered the leadership race because of dwindling support among his party’s lawmakers.
By contrast, May stayed largely out of the referendum fray. She tepidly backed remaining in the EU in a single speech, then remained largely out of sight as the behemoths of the Conservative Party — including Cameron and Justice Secretary Michael Gove — did each other in.
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Sheriff: Inmate kills 2 bailiffs at Michigan courthouse
ST. JOSEPH, Mich. (AP) — A jail inmate trying to escape from a western Michigan courthouse wrested a gun from an officer Monday, killing two bailiffs and injuring two more people before he was fatally shot by other officers, a sheriff said.
People scrambled for cover inside the Berrien County Courthouse in St. Joseph, a city of about 8,300 people in the southwestern corner of Michigan, about 100 miles northeast of Chicago.
“Our hearts are torn apart. … I have known them for over 30 years. It’s a sad day,” Sheriff Paul Bailey said of the bailiffs.
Larry Darnell Gordon, 44, who was locked up on several felony charges, was being moved from a cell for a courtroom appearance when a fight occurred and he was able to disarm an officer, Bailey said. The sheriff did not say what charges the inmate was facing.
Bailey said it does not appear that Gordon was handcuffed, adding authorities had “no warning signs” that the suspect would be violent.
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A lot of holes in GOP presidential ground game in key states
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Presidential battleground states were supposed to be swarming with Republican Party workers by now.
“We’ve moved on to thousands and thousands of employees,” party chairman Reince Priebus declared in March, contrasting that with the GOP’s late-blooming staffing four years earlier. “We are covering districts across this country in ways that we’ve never had before.”
That hasn’t exactly happened, a state-by-state review conducted by The Associated Press has found.
With early voting beginning in less than three months in some states, the review reveals that the national GOP has delivered only a fraction of the ground forces detailed in discussions with state leaders earlier in the year. And that is leaving anxious local officials waiting for reinforcements to keep pace with Democrat Hillary Clinton in the states that matter most in 2016.
To be sure, the national party actually has notched record levels of fundraising over the past few years and put together a much more robust ground game than it had in 2012. But officials acknowledge the real competition isn’t their past results or the chronically cash strapped Democratic Party. It’s Clinton and what GOP party chairman Priebus calls “that machine” of Clinton fundraising.
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Sanders to back Clinton. Will supporters follow?
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — It looks as if Bernie Sanders is ready to back Hillary Clinton. But not all his supporters are prepared to give up revolution for realism.
After weeks of stalling as he sought liberal policy concessions from Clinton and lobbied to push the party platform to the left, the Vermont senator is expected to appear with Clinton in New Hampshire Tuesday to endorse her as the Democratic Party presidential nominee.
Still, despite some major victories in the latest draft of the platform and big concerns about presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, many Sanders fans at a Democratic meeting in Orlando over the weekend had clear reservations about casting a ballot for Clinton.
“Personally, I don’t think I will support Hillary. I don’t trust her,” said Lisa Friddle, 53, a nurse from Palm Bay, Florida. “I can’t see backing someone I don’t believe in.”
Those sentiments were echoed by Xavier Gaud, 26, of Orlando, who said he would prefer that Sanders run as an independent. If Sanders isn’t on the ballot, he said it was “more likely I will support Jill Stein,” the leader of the minor Green Party.
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A bull market record that doesn’t feel like it
NEW YORK (AP) — It’s a new record for stocks, but it sure doesn’t feel like it.
The biggest gainers in the past year are fuddy-duddy utilities. Investors are cowering for cover in gold. And the best they’re hoping for in the current earnings season is that profits don’t fall as much as they initially feared.
It’s the second-longest bull market in history, and its old age is showing.
Still, stocks have rewarded investors who had faith to hold on. With a new high for the Standard and Poor’s 500 index on Monday, it has tripled since its low in March 2009 during the financial crisis.
“This is one of my favorite days. There’s nothing like a new high,” says John Manley, chief equity strategist for Wells Fargo Fund Management.
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Attorneys confirm Chelsea Manning attempted suicide
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Attorneys for the transgender soldier imprisoned in Kansas for sending classified information to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks said Monday her hospitalization last week was due to an attempted suicide.
Chelsea Manning’s attorneys, in an email to media outlets, did not disclose details about the attempt early July 5 at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, where the 28-year-old Manning is serving a 35-year sentence.
But the attorneys, who said they spoke to Manning by telephone Monday for the first time since the attempt, accused the U.S. Army of a “gross breach of confidentiality” for publicly revealing last week that Manning had been hospitalized. The Army at that time didn’t offer details.
Manning’s lawyers added that the soldier “knows that people have questions about how she is doing” and will remain under close observation at the lockup for several weeks.
“She would have preferred to keep her private medical information private, and instead focus on her recovery,” said her attorneys, who appeared unaware of Manning’s hospitalization until reached by reporters the next day and who criticized leaks of the information to media outlets.
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5-time NBA champion Tim Duncan retires after 19 seasons
Tim Duncan never wanted the spotlight, only the trophies. He never wanted the endorsements, only the camaraderie. He never wanted the accolades, only the collective achievement.
So when one of the most understated superstars in sports decided to finally call it a career after nearly two decades of excellence, he made the announcement with a 15-foot bank shot and not a boisterous slam dunk.
No big news conference. No victory lap. Not even a canned quote in the press release. Just a simple goodbye on Monday from the quiet anchor at the foundation of the San Antonio Spurs dynasty.
Just as he has for so much of his 19 seasons, the 40-year-old Duncan let others do the talking for him.
“Congrats to Tim Duncan. Probably a top 5 all time player and undoubtedly a top 5 all time teammate,” tweeted Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who played with Duncan in San Antonio. “Wow, what a career.”