CANNON BALL, N.D. – The crowdsourcing goal was modest: $5,000, enough to help a few dozen people camping in North Dakota to protest the nearby construction of the four-state Dakota Access oil pipeline. The fund has since topped a staggering $1 million.
The fund is among several cash streams that have provided at least $3 million to help with legal costs, food and other supplies to those opposing the nearly 1,200-mile pipeline. It may also give protesters the ability to prolong their months-long encampments that have attracted thousands of supporters, as the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe pursues the fight in court.
Online funds raked in more than $200,000 between Thursday and Friday alone.
Opponents of the $3.8 billion pipeline have been camping near the confluence of the Missouri and Cannonball rivers for months.
CHARLESTON, S.C. – A jury being chosen this week in Charleston will have to decide whether a white former police officer is guilty of murder in the shooting of an unarmed black motorist that shocked the nation after a bystander released cellphone video of the confrontation.
Michael Slager’s attorney contends there was more to the incident than what appeared on the widely seen video clip showing Walter Scott’s shooting, including a fight between the pair and a tussle over the officer’s Taser.
Slager, who turns 35 in November, faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted in the shooting that occurred after he pulled Scott over for a broken taillight. Family members have said Scott may have run because he was $18,000 behind on child support and worried he might have to go back to jail.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Rolling Stone magazine publisher and co-founder Jann Wenner said in a video deposition that he disagreed with a top editor’s decision to retract an entire article about a gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity after the story was discredited.
In a video played for jurors Friday in the defamation trial against Rolling Stone, Jann Wenner said that although the account given by the woman known only as “Jackie” turned out to be false, the bulk of the 2014 story, “A Rape on Campus,” is still valid, The Daily Progress reported.
The now-discredited article described in harrowing detail the alleged gang rape of the woman.
A police investigation found no evidence to back up Jackie’s claims and the magazine officially retracted the article in April 2015.
NORCIA, Italy – The third powerful earthquake to hit Italy in two months spared human life Sunday but struck at the nation's identity, destroying a Benedictine cathedral, a medieval tower and other beloved landmarks that had survived the earlier jolts across a mountainous region of small historic towns.
Lost or severely damaged were ancient Roman walls, Gothic and Baroque churches and centuries-old paintings crushed beneath tons of brick and sandstone and marble.
Associated Press
