Latest news with #Drummond
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Peoria man's 15-year sentence reduced by Appellate Court
PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — It was a win, sort of, for a Peoria man who appealed his conviction to a higher court. The 4th District Appellate Court in Springfield kept the conviction in place but did cut some time off his 15-year sentence, according to a 20-page order released on May 27. The order, written by Judge David Vancil with Judges Thomas Harris and James Knecht concurring, left in place convictions for reckless discharge of a firearm and for being a felon in possession of a firearm in connection with a chain of events that occurred on Oct. 28, 2023, that led to a man's death. Man sentenced in connection to deadly Peoria traffic collision The judges found now-retired Peoria County Circuit Judge Paul Gilfillan improperly allowed Demetrius Drummond to be sentenced for an extended term on reckless discharge charge. At the time, it appeared the judge as well as the attorneys thought he was eligible for an extended term of six years instead of the typical three years because of his past record. But because the course of conduct that night — shooting a gun in the air — was similar in both cases, the appellate judges found it wasn't appropriate to give him an extended term so they reduced his time on that count to three years. 'The State agrees that defendant's possession of a firearm and reckless discharge of that firearm were related, and there was no change in his criminal objective. Therefore, the State concedes that defendant's conviction for reckless discharge was not eligible for extended-term sentencing. The State also concedes that the unauthorized sentence was plain error,' the judges wrote. The judges left in place the 9-year prison term for the possession charge. According to Peoria police, officers responded to the area after an alert from the ShotSpotter gunfire detection system indicated nine rounds had been fired around 12:41 a.m., Oct. 28, 2023. People had gathered at a house party on Thrush Street that night. And some point, a man — later determined to be Drummond — fired a gun in the air. '. . . people began to flee. One person, later identified as Kobe Johnson, appeared to crouch down in front of a parked car. Someone else got into the car and drove away, driving over Johnson and leaving him lying in the middle of Thrush Street,' the order stated. Man arrested in connection with deadly Peoria traffic collision When they arrived, officers found an injured man on the road. That man was 24-year-old Kobe Johnson of Peoria who suffered multiple blunt-force trauma and crush injuries after being hit by the car and likely died instantly, according to the Peoria County Coroner's Office. Using witnesses' statements and cell phone records, prosecutors were able to convince a jury that it was Drummond who was the shooter. Drummond at the August 2024, trial opted to represent himself after his public defender said he wasn't ready to go to trial with only six weeks to review the evidence. With the court's ruling and the fact that Drummond is eligible for day for day 'good-time' credit, he could be released in a bit less than five years. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Sunday World
2 days ago
- Sunday World
Dublin activist group condemns ‘racist vigilantes' who have been attacking homeless tents
'While no such actions are justified, it is worth noting that these so called patriots have also targeted the shelters of Irish born rough sleepers' According to DCAR, this site on Alfie Byrne had also been attacked The group posted this picture of a tent that had been attacked in Clontarf A Dublin activist group has condemned the violent actions of 'racist vigilantes' who have been 'terrorising' some of the city's most vulnerable people. Dublin Communities Against Racism (DCAR) branded the self-proclaimed 'patriots" who had been destroying the tents and belongings of homeless people as 'cowards'. 'These racist vigilantes are not patriots, they are cowards targeting people who are already struggling with homelessness, complex mental health challenges, and addiction issues,' the group posted on Facebook. According to DCAR, many encampments had existed peacefully for years without incident before a 'sudden escalation in attacks'. They said this was directly linked to the 'inflammatory rhetoric of the racist agitators who seek to exploit social tensions for their own political gain'. The group posted this picture of a tent that had been attacked in Clontarf News in 90 Seconds - May 29th 'This violent behaviour does nothing to address homelessness,' the group added, 'it only deepens the suffering of those already living on the margins. 'While no such actions are justified, it is worth noting that these so called patriots have also targeted the shelters of Irish born rough sleepers.' Pádraig Drummond, CEO of Streetlink Homeless Support, said the incidents were not just vandalism, thy were a 'cruel and calculated attack on human dignity'. According to DCAR, this site on Alfie Byrne had also been attacked 'The people targeted are our neighbours, many of whom have deep roots in these communities,' Mr Drummond said. 'Those destroying their shelters are not protecting anyone, they are inflicting trauma on people who have nowhere else to go." 'These attacks are hate crimes on some of the most vulnerable people within our community, and those responsible should be held accountable. 'We also urge the public to reject the divisive lies of the racist and far-right figures who fuel such violence.' Diarmuid Mac Dubhghlais, community and homelessness activist pointed out that homelessness is a 'crisis created by government policy, not by homeless people themselves, not by immigrants, refugees, or NGOs'. 'The real threat to our communities is not the most vulnerable among us, but those who spread hatred while offering no real solutions,' he argued. Dublin Communities Against Racism said they had been regularly highlighting the attacks on homeless people, as well as the targeting of soup kitchens by 'racists' over the past two years. 'All those engaging in these acts and those provoking them must accept responsibility for the consequences of their actions,' they added.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Wired's editor tells me how she got 62,000 new subscribers in two weeks
News publishers weren't expecting a new "Trump Bump" in 2025 — they figured consumers had news fatigue. So how did Wired sign up 62,000 subscribers in two weeks in February? Katie Drummond, who took over Wired in 2023, explains. I write lots of depressing stories about the fate of media companies. Let's switch it up: Did you hear the one about the publisher who figured out how to find tens of thousands of new paying subscribers? That publisher is Wired, Condé Nast's tech site (and print magazine). And the strategy Wired used to find new subscribers is both super simple and very hard to pull off: Become a source for news lots of people want, and can't find anywhere else. That's the way Katie Drummond, who took over Wired in 2023, tells it. Drummond says she positioned Wired to specialize in breaking news — and then, when Donald Trump and Elon Musk joined forces after the 2024 election, she had plenty of news to break. On the one hand, that narrative makes plenty of sense. What Musk and his DOGE team tried to do to the federal bureaucracy was something we've never seen before. And Musk's chainsaw efforts affected millions of American workers and people who depend on those workers. So that's a big audience. On the other hand, lots of publications got a boost the first time Donald Trump was in office, for similar reasons. And the conventional wisdom was that it wouldn't happen again this time — news consumers were burned out on politics, and had already subscribed to everything they were going to subscribe to. So how did Drummond do it? You can hear my entire conversation with her on my Channels podcast — she's a great talker and well worth listening to in full. But you can get a sense of her strategy and tactics in this edited excerpt: Peter Kafka: In February, you guys said you'd added 62,500 subscribers in two weeks. At first I thought that number was a typo — publications just don't grow that fast. But apparently you really were. What happened? Katie Drummond: The answer is that our politics coverage — and specifically the coverage we started doing around the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk and his involvement in the Trump administration — drove colossal audiences to Wired. I've never seen anything like what we saw in February and March. That was where the subscription boom came from. Lots of publishers saw interest in Trump spike in 2016, 2017. But lots of wise people said media companies wouldn't see a "Trump Bump" this time around. Were you surprised to see that level of interest? We weren't expecting it. I've worked in digital media long enough to just always expect the worst, or just the status quo. Where the real surprise for me came from was that when we started covering DOGE, we started covering it really hard — like several stories a day, every single day, seven days a week, week after week. And after a week, I looked around, and was like, "where is everyone else? Why aren't other news organizations covering this?" I think that us having first-mover advantage on that story meant that for a lot of people, just out there in the world, trying to figure out what was going on, they saw Wired doing this coverage — and they looked at everybody else and sort of felt like, "where is the rest of the media on this?" A lot of the feedback we got from readers was "thank you so much for doing this coverage that nobody else seems willing to do. I'm now a subscriber." Did you feel that some of your new subscribers were doing something similar to people who subscribed to places like the Times in 2017? "You are fighting the good fight. I am signaling with my credit card that I like what you're doing. And I am against Donald Trump/Elon Musk." I think it was people looking for answers and trying to understand what is going on inside of these federal agencies: "This seems really wild and really troubling and really disturbing." Of course, we get anti-Trump sentiment in our inboxes. But it was less about anti-Trump and more, "Thank you for giving me information about what is happening inside the government of my own country. I appreciate that." On the one hand I can see why you guys would be positioned for this coverage: Elon Musk is a big tech guy; you're a tech publication. But Wired wasn't a place I would turn to to learn what's going on inside government agencies. How did you end up positioned for that? When I took the job in September 2023, I looked ahead at 2024. There was going to be a very consequential US federal election. There was also a record number of elections being held around the world. Elon Musk was not top of mind for me then. But generative AI was top of mind. Misinformation was top of mind. Everyone was worried we'd see replays of 2016, 2020, and that the platforms weren't going to be ready for it. Exactly. And the potential for more hacking and foreign interference in elections. It felt to me like, "There are so many different intersections with technology and with what we cover — we need to position ourselves now." I made a pitch to [Condé Nast] that I needed to build out a politics team. They were very receptive, very supportive. So by the end of 2023, we had that team in place. We started doing the coverage, and then midway through 2024, our focus changed when Trump was grazed in the ear by a bullet, Elon Musk endorsed him and it very quickly turned into a very different kind of story. One where we were able to bring a lot of expertise to bear around Elon Musk and the tech industry — how they think, how they operate. And with DOGE… I remember Zoe Schiffer, our director of business coverage — she wrote a book about what happened when Elon Musk bought Twitter. And she said: "This is going to be the Musk playbook — when he goes into a company, this is what he does. I think this is what we're about to see inside the federal government." So we positioned ourselves to cover it through that lens. Tesla stock is down and Elon Musk is much less visible than he was at the beginning of the year. DOGE doesn't seem to command the same kind of attention it used to. If people gave you money in February because they cared about DOGE, how do you keep them engaged in May and October? It's something that we think about and talk about all the time. The audience numbers on those stories now are not revolutionarily good — but they're still very good. And our mandate is to continue covering that as long as it is a consequential beat. We're going to stay on it. There will be more really big stories and really consequential stories to come out of what they are doing inside these agencies. But in terms of the community that we've built and all of those subscribers that we've added, now the challenge for us is to introduce them to the rest of Wired and what we have to offer. And to create new opportunities for them to really get to know Wired and get to know our journalists. So we're working on all sorts of things. We have been experimenting since late last year with livestream AMAs with Wired journalists, where subscribers can ask them questions. Thousands of people sign up and join those. This was the idea before the DOGE reporting really took off — to build Wired subscribers into more of a community and create less sort of a transactional back-and-forth. How is churn? I assume people who were signing up in February are more likely to stop subscribing than someone who's been with you for a while. Interestingly, our conversion rates are still way higher than they were last year and the year before. But our churn has gone way, way, way down. Among new subscribers, we're seeing churn rates that are vastly, vastly lower than what we were seeing in subscribers who signed up a year ago. Which is interesting. But again, it's only May. So we need to give that time. Sounds like you solved the whole thing. You solved publishing. I wake up every day assuming that I have not. Which I think is a pretty safe way to operate in 2025. Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
A recent history of Supreme Court ties
This article was first published in the State of Faith newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Monday night. The Supreme Court's religious charter school case came in with a bang and ended with a tie. The justices announced Thursday that they were 'equally divided' in Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond, which means the Oklahoma Supreme Court's ruling against the first-of-its-kind school remains in place. The possibility of a deadlocked court had been floated ever since Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself. Still, Thursday's announcement felt surreal — and anticlimactic. Well, maybe anticlimactic is the wrong word. I wasn't so much disappointed as I was unsettled by the idea that the country is no closer to a consensus on religious charter schools today than it was before the Oklahoma case was fully briefed and argued. But admitting that probably makes me sound naive. Multiple closely watched Supreme Court cases have ended in ties over the past decade, or in extremely narrow rulings that said little about underlying constitutional questions. Ties on the Supreme Court can stem from recusals, as the Drummond ruling did, or from vacancies. After Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, a few notable cases ended with a 4-4 vote, including United States v. Texas, which was about the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, which was about public school unions. Ties stemming from recusals are particularly common after a new justice is appointed to the court, because the justice can't participate in cases they considered or worked on in their previous position. In the case of a tie at the Supreme Court level, the lower court decision remains in place. Tie rulings may become more common moving forward as the justices adapt to the court's relatively new ethics code. The code, which was adopted in 2023, puts more pressure on the justices to track and disclose potential conflicts of interest. The new ethics rules likely explain why four justices recused themselves this month from considering whether to hear a case that involved a prominent book publisher, according to The Washington Post. Because there weren't six justices left to vote, the lower court ruling will remain in place. First-of-its-kind religious charter school blocked by deadlocked Supreme Court Prayer service at Pentagon sparks religious freedom debate New research on astrology, tarot cards and fortune tellers is full of surprises Omega Gym in Rome caters to an unusual clientele: priests, nuns and monsignors from the Vatican City. Pope Leo XIV went there several times a week over the past two years — when he was still known as Robert Prevost — as he tried to improve his 'posture and cardiovascular capacity,' according to The Associated Press. 'When the name of the pope was announced, my phone rings and my son tells me, 'Dad, it's Robert! Robert, our member!'' Francesco Tamburlani, the owner of the gym, told the AP. 'I heard the gym staff behind him cheering. ... This moved us, filled us with joy.' Tamburlani added that Pope Leo's gym membership is still active, although it's unclear if he'll be able to use it. 'We would organize our gym to guarantee his safety and his privacy. We would just need a sign,' he told the AP. By now, you're probably sick of hearing about young people drifting away from organized religion. But I'm only bringing that up again now to help explain my fascination with the fact that engagement with religious programming is actually on the rise on college campuses across the country. 'People want to feel loved for who they are and not what they do,' Chaz Lattimore Howard, the university chaplain at the University of Pennsylvania, told The Atlantic. Whether or not they believe in God, they 'want to be reassured that it's going to be okay.' In his latest article for Religion Unplugged, my friend Bobby Ross Jr. offered an in-depth look at a faith-focused event that set the stage for a Detroit Tigers baseball game. NPR recently visited a small community south of Tampa, Florida, that's reeling after a beloved local pastor was unexpectedly detained by ICE. The Rev. Maurilio Ambrocio had paperwork allowing him to be in the United States and checked in with immigration agents regularly, but he was still taken into detention in April. 'You're gonna take you know a community leader, a Pastor, a hard working man … What, did you need a number that day?," one of the pastor's neighbors told NPR. Earlier this month, I wrote about a surprising religious freedom battle in Toms River, New Jersey, involving a proposed homeless shelter, a proposed pickleball court and eminent domain. The New York Times covered the same conflict last week and summarized the latest developments. Hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend! Now it's time for the most important holiday season of all: my birthday week.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US Supreme Court tie ends Oklahoma plan to open publicly funded Catholic charter school
The U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked 4-4 on an Oklahoma case over a religious charter school. The tied vote allows the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling against the school to stand. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Newsroom) This story first appeared on Oklahoma Voice. OKLAHOMA CITY — A deadlocked U.S. Supreme Court has upheld an Oklahoma ruling that struck down the nation's first religious charter school. The Court announced Thursday it voted 4-4 with Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused. It did not disclose how each justice voted, nor did it issue written opinions. The tied vote affirmed last year's Oklahoma Supreme Court decision that the concept of a publicly funded Catholic charter school is unconstitutional. The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa sought to open St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School to offer a government-funded online education to students in all parts of the state. St. Isidore would have taught Catholic doctrine and operated according to church teachings. The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted in 2023 to approve opening the school. Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, asked the state Supreme Court to intervene, calling the school unconstitutional and a threat to religious liberty. Both the school and the statewide board appealed the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up the case and heard oral arguments April 30. Attorneys representing St. Isidore and the statewide board contend charter schools are not truly public schools but rather private entities contracting with the state, who therefore should be free to adopt a religion. Excluding faith-based groups from charter school funding is religious discrimination, they said. In light of the court's decision, St. Isidore's Board of Directors said it will continue exploring other options to deliver a virtual Catholic education for all in Oklahoma. 'Families across the state of Oklahoma deserve the educational opportunities presented by St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School,' the board stated. 'We are disappointed that the Oklahoma State Supreme Court's decision was upheld in a 4-4 decision without explanation.' During oral arguments in Washington, D.C., the Court appeared to be divided on the case. Liberal justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson made their doubts clear on St. Isidore while some of the conservative majority, particularly Justice Brett Kavanaugh, signaled support. Drummond has long contended the Catholic charter school would create a 'slippery slope' toward taxpayers having to fund schools of any religious faith, including belief systems Oklahomans might find objectionable. 'The Supreme Court's decision represents a resounding victory for religious liberty and for the foundational principles that have guided our nation since its founding,' Drummond said in a statement Thursday. The Statewide Charter School Board, which dropped the word 'virtual' from its name in the year since it appealed the case, issued a statement pledging its commitment to all students and the rule of law. 'The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board respects the Court's authority and appreciates its willingness to hear complex and deeply significant legal questions,' the board's statement reads. 'The split decision of the court affirms this was indeed a complicated matter with a wide spectrum of views on the appropriate relationship between education, public funding, and religious institutions in our state and country.' While the attorney general led the legal fight against the school, other Republican leaders in the state, including Gov. Kevin Stitt, advocated for giving religious groups access to charter school funds. Stitt said the matter is 'far from a settled issue.' 'This 4-4 tie is a non-decision,' Stitt said in a statement Thursday. 'Now we're in overtime. There will be another case just like this one and Justice Barrett will break the tie.' Barrett is a former faculty member of the University of Notre Dame Law School, which aided Catholic officials' case for the school. She did not participate in the decision to consider the Oklahoma appeal nor did she hear oral arguments. The court's deadlock could impact a separate lawsuit challenging St. Isidore in Oklahoma County District Court. That case has been on hold while the Supreme Court appeal was ongoing. A coalition of Oklahoma parents, faith leaders and education advocates filed the lawsuit in 2023 while represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, along with other national legal organizations. They contend St. Isidore would discriminate against LGBTQ+ students and employees, fail to adequately serve children with disabilities and unlawfully teach religious indoctrination. Oklahoma City Archdiocese officials said students of all backgrounds and beliefs would have been welcome at St. Isidore. The school promised in its charter contract that it would abide by nondiscrimination laws and other state regulations to the extent that Catholic doctrine permitted. Americans United is discussing next steps for the Oklahoma County case with the plaintiffs and co-counsel, spokesperson Liz Hayes said. A religious charter school would be 'an abject violation of religious freedom,' said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United. 'The Supreme Court's stalemate safeguards public education and upholds the separation of church and state,' Laser said. 'Charter schools are public schools that must be secular and serve all students.' Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit news organization. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
