Bomb suspects says innocent in court
ELIZABETH, N.J. — Ahmad Khan Rahimi, the man accused of setting off bombs in New Jersey and New York, injuring more than 30 people, pleaded innocent Thursday to charges he tried to kill police officers before they captured him.
A defense attorney entered the pleas as Rahimi appeared by video from his hospital bed in Newark. It was Rahimi’s first public appearance since last month’s bombings and police chase. He remains jailed with bail set at $5.2 million.
Rahimi, 28, an Afghan-born U.S. citizen, has been hospitalized with gunshot wounds since a police shootout that led to his capture Sept. 19 outside a bar in Linden. He is is charged with five counts of attempted murder of a police officer and weapons offenses.
He is accused of detonating a pipe bomb along the route of a Marine Corps charity race in the New Jersey shore town of Seaside Park and a pressure-cooker bomb in New York City on Sept. 17.
Zika virus spreads to new area in Miami
MIAMI — Florida health officials have identified another Miami neighborhood where mosquitoes have spread the Zika virus to people.
Gov. Rick Scott’s office announced Thursday that five people have been infected with Zika in a 1-square-mile area of the city just north of the Little Haiti neighborhood.
According to the statement, four of the cases were previously announced by Florida’s Department of Health as being under investigation. The fifth case was confirmed Thursday. Scott’s office said that confirms federal criteria for identifying a new zone of transmission.
A large portion of Miami Beach remains an active Zika infection zone.
Zika infections have been reported in more than 1,020 people in Florida. Most caught it while traveling outside the U.S., but 155 cases aren’t travel-related.
Court seeks Wisconsin voter-ID process
MADISON, Wis. — A federal judge ordered Wisconsin transportation officials Thursday to produce immediately documents clearly explaining how people who lack photo IDs can obtain voting credentials and to perform checks to ensure field workers are giving applicants correct information about the process.
U.S. District Judge James Peterson refused to invalidate the state’s entire voter-ID law, as an advocacy group had asked. He said he lacks the authority to do so because the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld it. He also expressed reluctance to make sweeping changes so close to the Nov. 8 election.
Media reports late last month show Motor Vehicle Division workers were telling people they need birth certificates to enter the application process and that it could take as long as eight weeks for credentials to arrive.
State law requires voters to show photo ID at the polls. People who lack IDs can get free ones if they provide identifying documents such as birth certificates or Social Security cards.
Under regulations the state adopted in May, anyone who lacks such documents can apply for a temporary voting credential. All applicants who pass a precursory Department of Transportation check to ensure they don’t already have ID are supposed to get a credential in the mail within six days.
Missouri death-drug source stays secret
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri can keep the supplier of its lethal-injection drugs secret, a federal appellate court ruled Thursday, reversing its own ruling earlier that the supplier must be revealed.
A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis overruled a Sept. 2 ruling by the same judges that the state must disclose its pentobarbital supplier to two Mississippi death-row inmates suing for the information.
But the 8th Circuit granted Missouri a rehearing and found that the state — and the drug’s supplier, identified in court filings only by the pseudonym “M7” — made a more persuasive case than its previous arguments.
The supplier insisted in court filings that it no longer would provide pentobarbital to Missouri or any other state if its anonymity vanishes, ultimately swaying the 8th Circuit to side with Missouri.
“We conclude that the harm to MDOC (Missouri) clearly outweighs the need of the inmates, and disclosure would represent an undue burden” on Missouri’s prison system, the appellate court found.