Man with knife killed after 3 slayings
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- A man fatally stabbed three employees and wounded a customer at a Tennessee rest stop and travel center Tuesday morning before a deputy shot and killed him, authorities said.
The Knox County sheriff's office responded to a call around 7 a.m. at a Pilot Travel Center off Interstate 40 in Strawberry Plains to find a person with stab wounds outside the store and a man armed with a knife in the parking lot, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a statement. Witnesses identified the man as the suspect and he refused deputies' demands to drop the weapon, the bureau said. As some point during the encounter, a deputy fired, striking and killing the suspect, the statement said.
Authorities found four stabbing victims. Three were pronounced dead at the scene and the fourth was taken to a hospital for treatment. The victims include Pilot employees, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Leslie Earhart told news outlets.
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Investigators were still working determine a motive for the violence, Earhart said.
Court allows Texas to keep abortion ban
AUSTIN, Texas -- A federal appeals court sided Tuesday with Texas in allowing it to ban most abortions while the state is under an emergency order that limits nonessential surgeries during the coronavirus pandemic.
A three-judge panel at the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a decision by a lower court that blocked the ban last week. The ruling allows the ban to stay in place.
Last month, Texas' Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ordered hospitals to cancel "non-essential" surgeries in order to free up hospital space and supplies that might be needed for coronavirus patients and doctors.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton then said the order would cover any abortions except for those needed to protect the health safety of the mother. Planned Parenthood and other abortion-rights groups then sued to remove abortion from the procedures that should be delayed.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel ruled that the "Supreme Court has spoken clearly" on a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy and ruled "there can be no outright ban on such a procedure."
Texas immediately appealed. The appeal court's 2-1 ruling noted "the escalating spread of covid-19, and the state's critical interest in protecting the public health."
Eighteen mostly Republican states, led by Louisiana, supported Texas. New York is leading a coalition of 18 mostly Democratic states and the District of Columbia in support of the clinics, which said they would appeal the panel's ruling.
Freed Kentuckian faces kid-porn charge
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A Kentucky man who had sex crime convictions commuted by former Gov. Matt Bevin last year has been charged by federal prosecutors with producing child pornography.
The new charge against Dayton Jones stems from events that led to sodomy and other charges against him by Kentucky prosecutors in 2014. He was a few years into a 15-year sentence when Bevin commuted the sentence last year, nullifying the case in state court.
The U.S. attorney's office in Louisville said on Tuesday that Jones, 24, was arrested on one charge of producing child sex abuse material. The federal charge carries a minimum of 15 years in prison upon conviction.
U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman said in a release that the new charge stems from events in 2014. Jones had pleaded guilty to assaulting a 15-year-old boy with a sex toy who had passed out from drinking. He was also found guilty in that case of making a video of the act, which Coleman said was shared on Snapchat. The U.S. attorney's release said Jones "created a video depicting child pornography."
Coleman did not mention Bevin's actions.
Bevin issued hundreds of pardons before leaving office in December, attracting criticism from lawmakers, prosecutors and victims for a handful of pardons of violent felons that appeared to be politically motivated.
Drug-infused candy fake, company says
SALT LAKE CITY -- Candy infused with the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that sickened Utah children after it was donated to a food bank was a counterfeit version of a Nerds product, the company said Tuesday.
Police said the candy containing THC had packaging similar to Nerds Ropes, with the addition of the word "medicated." But that product is not associated with Ferrara Candy Co., the maker of real Nerds, the company said in a statement.
Candy donated by the company or found in stores around the country is safe to consume, officials said. Ferrara is cooperating with the police investigation of the bogus candy.
Dozens of families picked up the bags Friday at a Baptist church in Roy, about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City, KUTV reported.
Authorities have said two children have been released from a hospital and are expected to make a full recovery after eating the candy that was in donated bags of food.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 04/08/2020