Staley, who led growth of Ransom Center archive, dies at 86

Staley, who led growth of Ransom Center archive, dies at 86

Thomas Staley, who led the University of Texas Harry Ransom Center cultural archive for 25 years and oversaw its growth into one of the world's leading literary and humanities research institutions, has died

By JIM VERTUNO Associated Press

31 March 2022, 01:35

• 3 min read

AUSTIN, Texas -- Thomas Staley, who led the University of Texas Harry Ransom Center cultural archive for 25 years and oversaw its growth into one of the world's leading literary and humanities research institutions, has died, the university announced Wednesday.

Staley was director from 1988 to 2013. Under his leadership, the Ransom Center acquired the archives of Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee, Pulitzer Prize winners David Mamet and Norman Mailer, and David Foster Wallace among the works of more than 100 writers from around the U.S. and the world.

Staley died Tuesday at age 86, the school announced. No cause of death was given.

Staley's ability to acquire the works of literary heavyweights, some of whom had little or no connection to Texas or the university, pushed the Ransom Center toward the forefront of major collections, and made it competitive with Yale and Harvard and other institutions with established archives.

“Drafts and correspondence tell you the story of how it all happens,” Staley said in 2009. “When you realize why a writer threw something away, you learn more about that work. You see the next scene that was written instead, and why it was better. You get a sense of how the puzzle comes together. And that’s invaluable for students and scholars.”

He also expanded the center's collection beyond literature with the archives of actor Robert DeNiro, photojournalist David Douglas Duncan and Watergate reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

The Woodward and Bernstein collection included notes, manuscripts, story drafts, court documents and other materials that the Ransom Center made available for researchers of the Watergate break-in and coverup scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

“Tom Staley was one of the most innovative archivist leaders in the country,” Woodward said. "He oversaw the acquisition of Carl Bernstein and my Watergate papers, set up the Watergate displays and opening of our files."

Staley grew the Ransom Center’s endowment from $1 million to more than $30 million to support acquisitions, internships, fellowships, education and programming.

A major renovation of the Ransom Center in 2003 created more than 40,000 square feet of public space and a gallery with permanent exhibits of some materials, including a Gutenberg Bible and the Niépce Heliograph, the world's oldest known surviving photograph.

Born in Pittsburgh on Aug. 13, 1935, Staley earned a Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh, and had been a professor of English, dean of the Graduate School, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Tulsa before moving to Texas.

Staley also was an author and founding editor of the James Joyce Quarterly, which he edited for 26 years, and a former president of the James Joyce Foundation.

The collections that Staley oversaw at Texas “are a lasting legacy and for generations to come will stand as a record not only of our times but of one man’s astute engagement with our culture,” said Ransom Center Director Stephen Enniss, who succeeded Staley.

Feds: 9 charged with blocking DC reproductive health clinic

Feds: 9 charged with blocking DC reproductive health clinic

Nine people were charged with federal civil rights offenses after they traveled to the nation’s capital and then blocked access to a reproductive health center and streamed it on Facebook

By MICHAEL BALSAMO Associated Press

31 March 2022, 00:59

• 2 min read

3:02

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ABCNews.com

WASHINGTON -- Nine people were charged with federal civil rights offenses after they traveled to the nation’s capital and then blocked access to a reproductive health center and streamed it on Facebook, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

The charges include violations of a federal law known as the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or the FACE Act, which prohibits physically obstructing or using the threat of force to intimidate or interfere with a person seeking reproductive health services. The law also prohibits damaging property at abortion clinics and other reproductive health centers.

The nine – Lauren Handy, 28, and Jonathan Darnel, 40, of Virginia; Jay Smith, 32, and John Hinshaw, 67, and William Goodman, 52, of New York; Joan Bell, 73, of New Jersey; Paulette Harlow, 73, Jean Marshall, 72, of Massachusetts; and Heather Idoni, 61, of Michigan – also face a charge of conspiracy against rights.

Prosecutors allege the group “engaged in a conspiracy to create a blockade at the reproductive health care clinic.” It was unclear, from court papers, how they met.

In court documents, prosecutors say Handy called the clinic pretending to be a prospective patient and scheduling an appointment. Once there, on Oct. 22, 2020, Darnel started a live feed on Facebook as the rest of the group lined up outside the clinic, the indictment says.

When a worker opened the door for patients, eight of the suspects pushed their way inside and began blocking the doors, and five of them chained themselves together on chairs to block the treatment area, according to court papers. Others blocked the employee entrance to stop other patients from coming inside, while another suspect blocked people from coming into the waiting room, the indictment states.

Darnel was broadcasting the blockade on Facebook and at one point said during the video, “(T)he rescuers are doing their job. They’re not allowing women to enter the abortion clinic. As long as they’re in there, no women can go in to kill their children,” according to the indictment.

It was not immediately clear if the defendants have attorneys who could comment on the allegations. If convicted, they each face up to a maximum of 11 years in prison.

Police: 12-year-old killed by younger brother who found gun

Police: 12-year-old killed by younger brother who found gun

Police say a 10-year-old boy fatally shot his 12-year-old brother as the two played with a gun they found inside a St. Louis home

ByThe Associated Press

31 March 2022, 00:07

• 2 min read

ST. LOUIS -- A 10-year-old boy fatally shot his 12-year-old brother as the two played with a gun they found inside a St. Louis home, police said.

The shooting happened Tuesday night in a north St. Louis neighborhood, KMOV-TV reported. Police said the boys were with a parent who was getting a haircut in the home when the older boy was shot in the face.

Police said a woman was arrested Wednesday on a possible charge of endangering the welfare of a child, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

The death follows a spate of shootings in St. Louis involving children handling guns. On Friday, two young cousins who were livestreaming from a St. Louis apartment died when one child fatally shot the other before killing herself in what family members have said was an accident.

In February, a 12-year-old girl was wounded in an accidental self-inflicted shooting.

St. Louis Metropolitan Police Maj. Ryan Cousins urged residents to use gun locks.

“As an agency, we will come out and teach everyone how to use them,” Cousins said. "We do understand people are going to own guns; however, to protect these children, we want to ensure these guns are secured safely.”

According to a leading gun control advocacy group, Everytown for Gun Safety, in 2020, unintentional shootings by children under 18 years old in the United States left 142 people dead and 242 wounded.

In 2021, the number of deaths climbed to 154 and the number wounded rose slightly to 244. According to the group's data and St. Louis' most recent gun deaths involving children, at least 20 people have been killed and more than 30 have been wounded in such shootings so far this year.

———

The story has corrected to show that police said a woman, not specifically the children's mother, had been arrested, and to remove the name of the 12-year-old who was killed.

Bob Child, longtime AP Connecticut photographer, dies at 86

Bob Child, longtime AP Connecticut photographer, dies at 86

Bob Child, a longtime Associated Press photographer who covered Connecticut’s biggest news events over a career that spanned nearly a half century, has died

By MICHAEL MELIA Associated Press

30 March 2022, 23:46

• 3 min read

The Associated Press

FILE — Associated Press photographer Bob Child, and his wife Joan Child, celebrate as h...

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Bob Child, a longtime Associated Press photographer who covered Connecticut’s biggest news events over a career that spanned nearly a half century, has died. He was 86.

Child died Wednesday in hospice care in Branford, Connecticut, of complications from several illnesses, his family said.

In over 35 years as an AP photographer, his work spanned natural disasters, sports and politics, including an iconic image he shot of Gov. John Rowland leaving a podium with his head bowed upon his 2004 resignation in a corruption scandal.

“He loved what he did,” said his son, Robert Child IV. “He knew Secret Service agents. He knew police chiefs. He knew legislators.”

He was honored with National Associated Press Managing Editors award for a photo that captured a police officer, weeping, as she gave a salute at the 1987 funeral of her fiancé, a fellow Milford officer who was shot and killed during a traffic stop.

Child was on a first-name basis with several Connecticut governors. When Gov. Ella T. Grasso died in 1981, the family asked that Child be one of only two photographers allowed into the church. Gov. Jodi Rell proclaimed Feb. 14, 2007 as Bob Child Day, in honor of his years of AP service.

Child covered his community with pride and compassion and mentored many along the way, said J. David Ake, AP's director of photography.

“Photographers are often called legendary because of their images. Some are called legendary because of their kind hearts. Bob was both,” Ake said.

Known for his ability to get shots of people who did not want to be photographed, including criminal defendants, Child would often return from successful assignments with a smile and the words, “Bagged him.”

Pat Eaton-Robb, a reporter in AP's Hartford bureau, said he would always stick by Child’s side when assigned to courthouse events or crime scenes.

“Bobby would always be at the exact right place at the exact right time to get the shot and allow me, as a reporter, to see things I otherwise would not have seen. He also had the sharpest elbows in the business and no reporter or photographer was ever going to get between him and his subject,” Eaton-Robb said.

Child had a twin brother, Pat, who worked for decades as a video journalist for WTNH-TV. Big news stories were often referred to as “Two Child events” by Connecticut journalists because they would bring out both brothers.

Born in Boston and raised in New Haven, Robert Child III attended Yale University on a music scholarship, graduating in 1958. He worked for the New Haven Register and the New Haven Journal-Courier before joining the AP in 1972. He retired in 2009.

Child's wife, Joan Child, died in 2008, and his brother Pat died in 2004.

He is survived by his three children, Sara Child Stevens, Robert, and Emily Child Smith; eight grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Parkland judge to decide if jurors will tour shooting site

 Parkland judge to decide if jurors will tour shooting site

Attorneys for Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz and prosecutors are arguing over whether his jury should tour the blood-stained, bullet-pocked classroom building where he murdered 17 people four years ago

By TERRY SPENCER Associated Press

30 March 2022, 23:46

• 4 min read

0:25

DOJ settles with Parkland parents in lawsuit

The Department of Justice has reached a settlement with parents of the Parkland shooting victims.

The Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Attorneys for Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz and his prosecutors argued vociferously Wednesday over whether the jurors who will decide whether he is sentenced to death should be allowed to tour the blood-stained, bullet-pocked classroom building where he murdered 17 people four years ago.

Prosecutors told Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer that the jurors need to see the path Cruz, 23, took through the three-story building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Feb. 14, 2018, to understand the carnage he unleashed as he walked methodically floor-to-floor, firing his semi-automatic rifle as he went. Shortly after the shooting, the building was fenced off and sealed — the dried blood, Valentine's Day gifts and bullet holes still in place.

Cruz's attorneys argued that the jurors will already see extensive and gruesome security video of the shooting, crime scene video and photos taken immediately after the shooting and hear testimony about the building. They said the prosecution's only desire is to inflame the jurors' passions and get them to vote with their emotions, not their intellect.

Cruz pleaded guilty in October to murdering 14 students and three staff members, and to the charge of attempted murder for 17 people who were wounded. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday for a monthslong penalty trial that will determine whether the former Stoneman Douglas student receives a death sentence or life without parole. Scherer previously ruled that jurors could tour the building, but that was before Cruz's guilty plea. The defense said the plea eliminated the need to tour the building because prosecutors no longer had to prove his guilt.

The trial will decide whether the aggravating factors of the killings — the multiple deaths, the planning, the cruelty — outweigh mitigating factors such as Cruz's lifelong mental and emotional problems and the death of his parents.

Juries don't typically tour crime scenes, but either side can request it if it believes a visit would help the members better understand the case. It is up to the judge to decide if they visit.

Melisa McNeill, Cruz's lead public defender, told Scherer that the building is no longer an accurate representation of what happened because the Broward Sheriff's Office removed personal items without fully logging and photographing them. She gave the court a video her office produced that would show what Cruz saw as he walked the halls, but removes all the blood, Valentine's gifts and other crime scene material. She said showing the jurors that would be a better alternative.

“If the purpose of running the jury to the crime scene is so that they can view the area Mr. Cruz walked, the path that he took, that can be done with a sanitized crime scene, if that is truly their (the prosecution's) intention,” McNeill said. The jurors “don't need to see all of the horrible things.”

But assistant prosecutor Carolyn McCann told Scherer that no evidence can replace seeing “the carnage” left behind in the school building. Cruz chose to shoot people in the building, she said. He chose to carry out his attack on Valentine's Day. If a tour of the building evokes strong emotions, it was Cruz's own doing, she argued.

“There is no one video, photograph, poster, film, anything, that captures what the ... building is,” McCann said. “The jury has to know the footsteps, the distance, the perspective, the visual acuity the defendant had to have.”

Scherer said she would rule soon.

The building, which rises above the Stoneman Douglas campus, has been a grim, daily reminder of the shooting for students, staff and parents. The Broward County school district plans to demolish it after the trial.

Prosecutor: Brit's brutality uncommon even for Islamic State

Prosecutor: Brit's brutality uncommon even for Islamic State

Prosecutors told a federal jury that a British national on trial for terrorist acts that resulted in the gruesome deaths of four American hostages had a reputation for outsize brutality

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press

31 March 2022, 01:02

• 4 min read

3:02

On Location: March 30, 2022

Catch up on the developing stories making headlines.

The Associated Press

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- El Shafee Elsheikh was not a typical Islamic State foot soldier — he was a senior leader who took particular pleasure in mistreating the hostages he held captive, prosecutors said Wednesday in opening statements of Elsheikh's terrorism trial.

Elsheikh, a British national, is accused of a playing a leadership role in an Islamic State cell that kept more than 20 Western hostages captive in the years between 2012 and 2015, when the terrorist group controlled large swaths of Iraq and Syria and was at the height of its power.

Four Americans — journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller — were among the hostages. Foley, Sotloff and Kassig were killed by decapitation; gruesome videos broadcast their executions to the world. Mueller was forced into slavery and raped repeatedly by the Islamic State's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, before she was killed.

Prosecutor John Gibbs said Elsheikh was known by his captives not only for his British accent but for his unusual penchant for brutality even within a terrorist group known for its cruelty.

According to Gibbs, surviving hostages will testify that Elsheikh and two British compatriots were more likely than day-to-day guards to hand out beatings. Even hostages about to be released after paying a ransom were given “going-away beatings" by the British men, Gibbs said. When Elsheikh and friends learned that a European hostage was marking his 25th birthday, they ensured they inflicted exactly 25 blows, Gibbs said.

The three individuals “were utterly terrifying” to the hostages, Gibbs said. If the Britons came into contact with hostages, they were supposed to kneel down, face the wall and avoid eye contact at all times.

“If a hostage looked at any of the three men, they would be beaten,” Gibbs said. “In fact, they did not have to do anything to be beaten.”

Waterboarding and other forms of torture were also inflicted on hostages, Gibbs said.

Interestingly, Gibbs referred only to three British nationals — Elsheikh, his longtime friend Alexenda Kotey, and Mohammed Emwazi, who frequently carried out the role of executioner and was known as “Jihadi John.” Together, the men were nicknamed “the Beatles” by their captives, in part because of their accents and in part because the hostages felt the need to be surreptitious when talking amongst themselves because they risked punishment to be openly discussing their captors, Gibbs said.

Among the three, Elsheikh was known specifically as “Ringo,” Gibbs said.

Usually, public discussion has centered on four captors known as Beatles. The fourth, Aine Davis, is serving a prison sentence in Turkey.

Emwazi was killed in a drone strike, and Kotey was captured alongside Elsheikh and also brought to Virginia to face trial. Kotey pleaded guilty last year in a plea bargain that calls for a life sentence.

Defense attorney Edward MacMahon highlighted the discrepancy about the number of Beatles as he argued for his client's innocence, saying Elsheikh was not a “Beatle” but a simple Islamic State foot soldier.

MacMahon said surviving hostages have different recollections about each of the Beatles and their characteristics, and about whether there were three or four.

He noted that the British speakers were careful to always wear masks, making identification difficult.

MacMahon also said Elsheikh's numerous admissions in media interviews about his role in the hostage-taking scheme should be disregarded. They were made while he was in custody of the Syrian Democratic Forces, and he was fearful of being transferred to Iraq, where he heard rumors that detainees were being summarily executed after 10-minute trials, the attorney said. Admitting that he was a “Beatle” was a way to ensure transfer into Western custody, MacMahon said.

In pretrial arguments, defense lawyers sought unsuccessfully to have Elsheikh's confessions to interrogators and journalists tossed out, saying they were made under duress. The judge said the evidence was overwhelming that Elsheikh's confessions were given freely.

Throughout opening statements, Elsheikh sat ramrod straight, avoiding eye contact with the jury while Gibbs described the atrocities inflicted on hostages.

Gibbs told jurors that they will hear from numerous witnesses who will provide evidence of Elsheikh's guilt, including from captives who spent time with the slain Americans as well as family members who received ransom demands.

The first witness to testify was terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman, a professor at Georgetown University, who walked the jury through the origins of the Islamic State group as an offshoot of Al Qaeda.

The trial is expected to last at least three weeks.

Ex Green Beret claims Maduro foe is avoiding Miami lawsuit

 Ex Green Beret claims Maduro foe is avoiding Miami lawsuit

A Venezuelan political strategist allegedly threatened to shoot a gun through the door of his luxury Miami condo to avoid being served a lawsuit by a former U.S. Green Beret he hired as part of a plan to oust President Nicolas Maduro

By JOSHUA GOODMAN Associated Press

29 March 2022, 00:15

• 4 min read

The Associated Press

FILE- This photo released by the Venezuelan Miraflores presidential press office shows P...

MIAMI -- A Venezuelan political strategist allegedly threatened to shoot a gun through the door of his luxury Miami condo to avoid being served a lawsuit by a former U.S. Green Beret he hired as part of a plan to oust President Nicolas Maduro, according to a court hearing Monday.

Jordan Goudreau in October 2020 sued JJ Rendón for $1.4 million, alleging breach of contract, after Rendon walked away from a plan he briefly pushed on behalf of the Venezuelan opposition to depose Maduro with the help of the three-time Bronze Star recipient and Iraq war veteran.

Goudreau nonetheless plowed ahead, traveling to Colombia to help train a ragtag army of volunteers at secret camps set up by deserters from Venezuela's military. Operation Gideon — or the Bay of Piglets, as the bloody fiasco came to be known — ended with six insurgents dead and two of Goudreau’s former Special Forces buddies behind bars in Caracas.

Rendón denied making any such threats to avoid being served the complaint, saying that his door to his apartment is bulletproofed and he doesn’t possess any guns.

“It’s another crazy, delusional and baseless claim inside an originally baseless lawsuit,” he told The Associated Press in a brief statement.

Goudreau and his Florida-based company, Silvercorp USA, accuse Rendón of defaulting on an agreement they had signed earlier to detain, capture or remove Maduro and install in his place Juan Guaidó, who the U.S. and dozens of allies recognize as Venezuela's legitimate leader.

The case has been dormant since Goudreau filed his 133-page complaint, which reads like an intrigue-filled Netflix series involving everything from clandestine airstrips to aides to former Vice President Mike Pence.

At a hearing on Monday in Miami, Goudreau's attorney asserted that the reason the case hasn’t moved forward is because Rendón has repeatedly and intentionally refused to accept the summons — a basic first step in any civil lawsuit.

According to Goudreau, a court certified server attempted to personally deliver a summons on seven occasions starting in August 2021 — almost 10 months after the lawsuit was filed — by knocking unsuccessfully on the door of Rendón's downtown Miami apartment.

During the last attempt, at 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 25, he was informed by the building’s front desk that Rendón had called down to say he would “shoot through the door” if he ever attempted to knock again, according to a sworn affidavit filed ahead of Monday's hearing.

“My process server at that time decided to do a strategic withdrawal,” attorney Gustavo Garcia-Montes said during Monday's brief, one-minute hearing, which ended with Judge Carlos Lopez granting Goudreau's request that Rendón be formally notified through alternative means available to the court, such as certified mail or an advertisement in a newspaper.

Rendón has questioned Goudreau's motives for bringing a lawsuit he considers frivolous. He's asserted that the agreement they signed, for which he reimbursed Goudreau $50,000 to cover expenses, was exploratory in nature and in any case nullified months before he launched the ill-fated raid on his own.

In his lawsuit, Goudreau claims that that what was known as the “Alcala plan” — for one of its ringleaders, former Venezuelan Army Gen. Clíver Alcalá — had been approved by the U.S. government.

To back his claim, Goudreau cited three meetings he had with a former aide to Pence named Drew Horn, who went on to serve as a senior adviser to the Director of National Intelligence. During those meetings, Goudreau said he was assured by Horn that licenses from the U.S. government regarding the procurement of weapons for the coup effort were forthcoming, although there's no evidence anything came of those discussions.

U.S. officials have repeatedly denied any involvement in the failed plot.

Still, the U.S. has long encouraged efforts to unseat Maduro, including by offering a $15 million reward for his arrest on U.S. drug charges and support for a failed barracks uprising that preceded Operation Gideon.