Latest news with #JohnJones
BBC News
4 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Aylesbury pensioner, 80, who stabbed neighbour denies murder
A 76-year-old man died after an 80-year-old neighbour hit him with a hammer then stabbed him with a kitchen knife, a trial has been Kindell attacked John Jones at their flats complex in Silverdale Close in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in January, a jury Miranda Moore KC said the two men had been involved in a long-running dispute over smoking and noise and Mr Kindell "didn't like" Mr said jurors would have to decide whether the defendant, who denies murder, was guilty of that offence or of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. 'No, no, no' Two women had gone to help after seeing Mr Jones being attacked with a hammer in a foyer area at the block of flats where the two men Moore said as the women arrived, Mr Jones managed to disarm Mr said the accused had then "retreated upstairs".One of the women had called 999 - and Mr Jones spoke to an emergency services Moore told jurors: "Mr Jones said 'I walked in the door to go into my flat and this bloke from upstairs started hitting me with a hammer'."She said Mr Kindell then returned with a knife and stabbed Mr Jones to words "what have you got" and "no, no, no" followed by screaming, were recorded by the 999 call handlers, she added. The prosecuting counsel said no-one disputed that Mr Jones was killed by Mr Kindell in a foyer area in the block of flats where they lived."We say this is murder," Ms Moore told the trial."There was a rational motive."The two men had a long-running dispute which went back years."She added that Mr Jones smoked outside Mr Kindell's window - which "irritated" the said Mr Jones also complained about noise coming from Mr Kindell's flat she told jurors how Mr Kindell denied said lawyers representing him argued he had an "abnormality of mental function" which meant his responsibility for the killing of Mr Jones was "diminished". Ms Moore has outlined the prosecution case in an opening statement and jurors are due to begin hearing evidence on trial is expected to end later this Kindell watched proceedings from the dock and Judge Jonathan Cooper told jurors that the accused was sitting with nurses who would be with him throughout the added: "We will go at a pace that is appropriate for Mr Kindell."The trial continues. Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Michigan WWII Veteran honored on Memorial Day at 104-years-old
STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. (FOX 2) - A 104-year-old World War II veteran was honored during a Memorial Day celebration. The Metro Detroit community honored those who gave the ultimate sacrifice on Memorial Day. Hundreds lined the streets in Sterling Heights for the city's Memorial Day parade. Local perspective It's the future saying thank you for your service to veterans like 104-year-old John Jones. Jones was the parade's grand marshal. He was born in Detroit in 1920 and was always committed to doing the right thing. "When WWII started, I felt I had to go in and help my country, so I joined the Navy," he said. The backstory In 1943, Jones was trained as a medical assistant and was assigned to the USS Meriweather. "We were at the invasion of Okinawa. It was scary," he said. "I never had any real fear, but when I heard the first guns going off in Okinawa, that kind of woke me up a little bit. We just have to fight for everything we want." Meanwhile, Jones still thinks about those who never made it home. As the community comes together to pay tribute, Jones is honored to serve as grand marshal. "It was really overwhelming. I had no idea it would be this kind of a turnout," he said. Jones served his country for three and a half years. He received medals and returned home to Michigan. He was married to Vera for 77 years before she died. They had three children. As Jones reflects on his past, he says he is also hopeful about the future.
Geek Dad
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Dad
Review – Absolute Martian Manhunter #3: Into the Fire
Absolute Martian Manhunter #3 cover, via DC Comics. Ray: This is by far the most offbeat of the Absolute books so far, and also one of the most intriguing. There are no signs of connections to a larger DCU, and it's street-level in a deeply surrealist way. We're just alone with this strange, haunted detective and the Gumby-esque psychic imprint of a Green Martian who's hitching a ride in his brain and giving him color-coded psychic powers. But now, the martian is giving John Jones hints of something horrible to come – a White Martian bound for Earth, with sadistic plans for the planet. And it seems to be manifesting in horrific crimes. After last issue's racist mass shooting, things only get worse when a homeless man is burned to death – by someone who's not sure why they did it. And making things worse, 23 other homeless people are killed in the same manner, at the same time, with the motive being a complete mystery even to the culprits. Dark fire. Via DC Comics. Deniz Camp is doing a great job of combining some surreal elements with crimes that feel all too real. The targets – Syrian refugees, street homeless – are exactly the kind of victims who often fall through the cracks, and Jones' doggedness when investigating even confuses his partner in the field. As the arsons escalate, targeting other people around the city, it becomes clear that there's a theme to whoever – or whatever – is doing this. As John's visions escalate and the colors become more surreal, the situation at home grows more and more strained, and the psychic imprints he gets of his wife sort of tell the tale. The story here is great, but it wouldn't work half as well without Rodriguez's surrealist art – the jarring use of colors makes us feel as disoriented as John does, and that's an experience that's hard to get in comics. This book is an experience in the strangest way possible. To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week. GeekDad received this comic for review purposes. Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!
Powys County Times
25-05-2025
- Health
- Powys County Times
Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust reaches milestone in study
A £1 million research study in Telford has reached a major milestone in its aim to revolutionise the diagnosis of colorectal cancer. The trial, run by The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), has now recruited more than 500 patients from Shropshire, Telford, and Wrekin. The study aims to reduce the amount of time patients are waiting for a colorectal cancer diagnosis. The TRIOMIC study is developing a new test which aims to reduce the number of patients who need an invasive colonoscopy. It will also be held outside of a hospital setting, at the CDC in Hollinswood House, Stafford Park. Over 500 symptomatic patients on the colorectal urgent suspected cancer pathway at SaTH have been recruited for a new test, which is quick and pain-free, using the Oricol™ device to collect rectal mucus samples. The samples are then tested at laboratories for abnormal cells from cancer and significant polyps. If successful, eight in ten patients will find out within five days of the test that they do not have cancer, avoiding the need for a 45-minute colonoscopy with full bowel preparation and a separate hospital visit. The new technology is enhancing the patient experience, reducing pressure on overstretched staff, and lowering costs for SaTH, which operates the county's acute hospitals and CDC. Origin Sciences has funded the staff and capital costs to support the development of the new pathway – three clinic rooms have been set up at the CDC and 14 staff members have been recruited. This is one of more than 50 research studies under way at SaTH, with thousands of patients taking part in these trials each year. The findings from these studies are helping to shape the future of healthcare both in the area and potentially around the world. Dr John Jones, executive medical director, said: "Research and innovation helps us to determine the best treatments and play a vital role in the care we deliver. "We are always looking for opportunities to improve, whether it is how we transform surgical care, reducing screening waiting times through working differently, or trialling new processes to reduce waste. "Embracing new ways of working can make a real difference to the care we provide."
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US judges who rule against Trump are being barraged with abuse and threats, experts warn
US judges who have increasingly rebuked the Trump administration's harsh deportation agenda and other Maga policies are facing intense verbal assaults from the president and his allies, which seem to be spurring other dangerous threats against judges, say legal experts and former judges. The Trump administration's escalating fight with the courts has come as more than 200 lawsuits have challenged executive orders and policies on multiple issues including immigrant deportations, penalizing law firms with links to political foes, agency spending and workforce cuts, and other matters. The wave of litigation has resulted in more than 100 executive orders by Trump and other initiatives being halted temporarily or paused by court rulings from judges appointed by both Democrats and Republicans including some by Trump. Related: Republicans say they want more American babies – but which kind? Increasingly, ex-judges and legal experts warn the verbal attacks by Trump, his attorney general, Pam Bondi, and Maga allies are creating a hostile climate that endangers the safety of judges and their families. 'The constant mischaracterization by Trump and his allies of judicial rulings as political in nature, together with their false, vituperative and ad hominem attacks on individual judges who make them, skews the public's perception of the work of the federal judiciary,' said ex-federal judge John Jones, who is now the president of Dickinson College. Jones added: 'These attacks foment a climate where the safety of judges and their families is at high risk.' Those risks were underscored when the top Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, Richard Durbin, this month wrote to Bondi and the FBI director, Kash Patel, requesting an investigation into anonymous pizza deliveries to at least a dozen judges that seem aimed at intimidating them as they handle cases involving the administration. Durbin's letter noted some of the pizza deliveries were made in the name of US district judge Esther Salas's son, Daniel Anderl, who was fatally shot in 2020 by a lawyer who pretended to be a delivery person, according to an April missive from Salas and attorney Paul Kiesel. Elsewhere, Jones and more than two dozen other ex-judges issued a strong statement on Law Day this month announcing a new Article III Coalition linked to the non-partisan group Keep Our Republic to back judicial independence and warn of the dangers to judges posed by the Trump administration's vitriolic attacks. On a related track more than 150 ex-federal and state judges from both parties in early May signed a letter to Bondi and Patel denouncing the administration's rising attacks on the judiciary and the unusual arrest of a Milwaukee judge charged with impeding federal agents from arresting an allegedly undocumented migrant in Wisconsin. A federal grand jury on 13 May indicted the judge on charges of obstructing a proceeding and concealing a person from arrest. 'The circumstances of the arrest of the Milwaukee judge – her arrest, the perp walk, the picture of her handcuffs, the comments of the FBI director and the attorney general – was so far out of line with accepted practice and rules,' said Nancy Gertner, a former judge who now teaches at Harvard law school. 'It clearly was intended to intimidate other judges; there was no justification for it whatsoever,' added Gertner, who helped to coordinate the letter to Bondi and Patel with J Michael Luttig, a former assistant attorney general and ex-judge. Gertner's concerns were underscored when Bondi soon after the judge's arrest threatened other judges who may balk at their legal agenda. 'They're deranged,' Bondi told Fox News. ' I think some of these judges think they are beyond and above the law, and they are not. We will come after you and we will prosecute you.' Gertner stressed: 'I'm hearing everywhere that judges are worried about their own safety. There are people who are inflamed by the incendiary comments of our president and members of Congress about judges. Public officials have legitimized attacks on judges with whom they disagree.' Some Trump judicial appointees and other judges appointed by presidents of both parties have irked the administration with their rulings and incurred Trump's wrath. Trump in March urged the impeachment of the DC federal judge James Boasberg and falsely branded him a 'radical left lunatic' after he issued a ruling to halt the deportation to El Salvador of scores of Venezuelan immigrants with alleged gang ties. Although he didn't mention Trump's attack on Boasberg, Chief Justice John Roberts hours later criticized political attacks on the judiciary and warned against calls to impeach judges for their decisions. Roberts in a year-end report in December warned pointedly about threats aimed at judges, noting there had been a sizable rise in threats of violence, defiance of court rulings and disinformation. In another legal dustup, in May the US district judge Beryl Howell issued a blistering decision that an executive order targeting the law firm Perkins Coie, which had represented Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016, violated the first, fifth and sixth amendments. Howell labeled the Trump order a 'blunt exercise of power' that 'is not a legitimate use of the powers of the US government or an American president'. One Trump appointee, the Texas judge Fernando Rodriguez, this month echoed two other rulings to bar the Trump administration from using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act – which had only been used three times before – to deport alleged members of a Venezuelan gang, spurring a Trump attack on social media. 'Can it be so that Judges aren't allowing the USA to Deport Criminals, including Murderers, out of our Country and back to where they came from? If this is so, our Country, as we know it, is finished!' Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. Despite the uptick in adverse rulings, the Trump administration is getting some court rulings backing at least part of its arguments. A federal judge in Pennsylvania on 13 May ruled for the first time that Trump can use the Alien Enemies Act to accelerate deporting accused gang Venezuelan gang members, but stipulated significantly that targeted migrants have to be given at least three weeks' notice and a chance to challenge their removals. Still, legal scholars and ex-judges warn the Trump administration has created a hostile climate with many judges by pushing factually and legally dubious cases, and trying to smear judges who ruled against them. 'Federal courts have always been ready to rebuke a justice department lawyer for concealing or misstating the facts or the law,' said Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor who is now a law professor at Columbia. 'Now judges are increasingly presented with Trump administration emissaries who are poorly prepared to assist courts and who stand by when their leaders respond to adverse decisions by personally attacking judges. The credibility the government has with judges has long been a priceless asset. It's disappearing fast.' The former Republican congressman Charlie Dent from Pennsylvania said the Trump administration's court setbacks were linked to their legally flawed cases. 'It appears the president is being beaten in court on a regular basis because many of his executive orders are legally and constitutionally questionable,' Dent said. 'His lawyers are trying to argue weak cases and that's why they're losing.' Dent added that Trump was 'throwing mud against the wall to see what sticks. If it doesn't stick he blames the courts.' Gertner stressed: 'Trump has pushed constitutional and statutory limits beyond recognition especially with regard to the Alien Enemies Act … Anyone on US soil has due process rights under the constitution, which means at the minimum a hearing.' Some judges who have tangled with Trump and federal prosecutors over the administration's radical deportation policies have been ensnared in extended court battles to get straight answers and facts from government lawyers. Boasberg, who has been appointed at different times by presidents of both parties, opened a contempt hearing against the administration after it flouted an injunction to block Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport dozens of suspected Venezuelan gang members. In response, the Trump administration invoked the State Secrets Act to block his inquiry into whether it defied a Boasberg order to turn around planes deporting Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador. Another high-profile deportation ruling that angered the Trump administration and led to lengthy court battles involves a Maryland man who was wrongfully deported to a dangerous prison in El Salvador which Ice has acknowledged was a mistake. Despite court orders, including from the supreme court to 'facilitate' the man's return, the administration has failed to do so while offering dubious excuses. The dangerous fallout from the administration's flouting of court rulings and attacks on judges seems to have led to the anonymous pizza deliveries to the homes of judges. Durbin's letter to Bondi and Patel requested a full accounting of how many anonymous or pseudonymous pizza deliveries have been made to judges or their families since the Trump administration took office, the number of judges who have been affected and the districts or circuits where these judges are based. The pizza deliveries started towards the end of February, as government lawyers sought to thwart rising legal challenges to Trump's policies, and as Trump and Maga allies began frequent attacks against judges whose rulings they disdained. The US Marshals Service, which provides security for federal judges and courthouses, has been investigating the deliveries, but it is unclear what role, if any, the justice department headquarters and the FBI have played to date. Many of the pizzas were reportedly sent to the residences of judges presiding over cases the administration has been defending. The Durbin letter to Bondi and Patel asked them to report by 20 May whether they had identified suspects, initiated prosecutions, or found evidence that the deliveries were coordinated, and describe what steps their agencies have taken to protect judges and their families. To ex-judge Jones, the reports of pizza deliveries that seem aimed at scaring judges are 'disgusting. They're a direct result of the toxic comments about the federal judiciary by Trump and members of the executive branch and some DoJ officials including AG Pam Bondi.' More broadly, some ex-prosecutors too voice alarms over the rising political attacks on judges. Ex-prosecutor Paul Rosenzweig blasted intimidation efforts against judges as 'shameful expressions of authoritarian attacks on the rule of law'.
