Chicago police gun reporting found lax
CHICAGO -- Chicago's inspector general said city police are failing on a requirement to tell the state when people are mentally unfit to carry guns.
Inspector General Joe Ferguson said in a report released Wednesday that the state Firearm Owners Identification Card Act requires the Chicago Police Department to notify the Illinois State Police within 24 hours of determining a person poses "a clear and present danger." The state police can revoke a permit to carry if a cardholder has been admitted to a mental-health facility within five years.
The report said Chicago police reported only one of 37 incidents over 3½ years when officers confiscated a gun from a person whom they had taken to a mental-health facility.
Ferguson recommended Chicago police undergo more training on reporting requirements. Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the department has adopted the recommendations.
Trump keeps some files on JFK sealed
WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump has accepted a recommendation from the National Archives to continue blocking public access to hundreds of records on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy more than five decades after the 35th president was killed.
The National Archives released its last batch of more than 19,000 records on Thursday. But some of material remains undisclosed.
The decision came in a memo Trump issued Thursday that said some of the classified documents are "of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure." The FBI and CIA had said the release could jeopardize national security.
The president ordered agencies to review the remaining documents in the next three years to determine which should be released.
The records released Thursday under the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act passed by Congress in 1992. The act ordered the archives to disclose all information collected -- some 5 million pages of material -- on the assassination within 25 years, barring any exceptions designated by the president.
Those 25 years ended Oct. 26, 2017. Several days before that deadline, it appeared Trump had no plans to withhold anything. But Trump decided to block the release pending a six-month review.
The files released Thursday -- mostly FBI and CIA records -- detail how authorities combed through tips in the wake of Kennedy's death.
Plea guilty in military explosives case
NEW ORLEANS -- The inventory control officer for a one-time contractor would repay about 1 percent of the $8.7 million cost of an Army contract to take apart charges of M6 artillery propellant in Louisiana, under a plea agreement reached this week.
If the judge agrees to recommendations from prosecutors, Lionel Koons would repay nearly $93,000 of the total paid to Explo Systems Inc. before the company went bankrupt in 2013, leaving 7,800 tons of potentially explosive propellant at Camp Minden.
Koons pleaded guilty Tuesday to making false statements, one of the 31 counts against him. The court posted details online Thursday.
Explo's problems came to light after 21 tons of M6 and 62 tons of smokeless powder exploded in October 2012, rattling windows 4 miles away.
About six weeks later, state police arrived with a search warrant and ordered a halt to further shipments, saying Explo had nowhere to store any more M6.
Koons has agreed to testify against five co-defendants, including co-owner David Fincher of Burns, Tenn.
U.S. to end Nepalese protected status
WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump's administration is ending special protections for an estimated 9,000 Nepalese immigrants in the United States.
Immigrants will have until June 24, 2019, to leave or find another way to stay in the country to allow for an orderly transition.
They were granted special protections under President Barack Obama after an earthquake in Nepal in April 2015 killed more than 8,000 people. The Obama administration extended the protections for 18 months in October 2016.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has concluded the disruptions from the earthquake "have decreased to a degree that they should no longer be regarded as substantial."
The U.S. created Temporary Protected Status in 1990 to provide a safe haven for people from countries affected by war and natural disasters.
Since taking office, Trump has ended special protections for citizens of several countries, including El Salvador, Nicaragua and Haiti after determining that once-perilous conditions no longer preclude people from returning home.
A Section on 04/27/2018