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Case on gun rights, cannabis use builds unusual alliances
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FROM WIRE REPORTS
Plane crashes in Bolivia, killing at least 22
LA PAZ, Bolivia — The death toll rose to 22 on Saturday from the crash of a military plane carrying 18 tons of new bank notes a day earlier near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles and scattering bills on the ground, a police commander said Saturday. Another 29 people were injured, mostly passengers traveling on public transportation where the plane crashed. Among the dead are 12 men, including one crew member, six women and four children, police commander Mirko Sokol said. Forensic investigators were still recovering remains from the wreckage Saturday. The injured were taken to clinics in the city of El Alto, near La Paz, where the airport is located. Defense Minister Marcelo Salinas said Friday that the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency from the eastern city of Santa Cruz when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Images on social media showed debris from the aircraft, destroyed cars and bodies scattered on the road.
2 indicted in connection to Utah church shooting
SALT LAKE CITY — A federal grand jury has indicted two men on firearms charges in connection with a shooting last month in a church parking lot in Salt Lake City that left two people dead and six more injured. The indictment unsealed Friday charges 32-year-old Ryan Toutai with unlawful disposition of a firearm and 26-year-old Fineeva Maka with felon in possession of a firearm, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah said. Investigators used cellphone videos and photos and GPS ankle monitor evidence to tie the two men to a pistol recovered from the Jan. 7 shooting, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Prosecutors allege the two men are gang members. The violence took place in the back parking lot of a place of worship for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon church. Investigators have said the shooting broke out from a dispute between people who knew each other and were attending a funeral. All the victims were adults.
Cher’s son faces counts of assault, trespassing
CONCORD, N.H. — Police say Cher’s son was arrested on Friday after acting belligerently at a New Hampshire private high school, of which he has no association. Elijah Allman, 49, was charged with four misdemeanors: two counts of simple assault, criminal trespass and criminal threatening. Allman, whose father was the late Gregg Allman, was also charged with a violation of disorderly conduct, which is illegal in the state but not considered a crime. At about 7 p.m. that day, Concord police responded to reports that Allman was disturbing people in the dining hall of St. Paul’s School. After charging Allman, police said he was released on bail as his case works through the court system. A representative for Cher was not immediately available. St. Paul’s School declined to comment.
CORRECTION In today’s tribute section for the late Norman Francis, a production error garbled a few words. In Edwin Lombard’s column, a sentence should state: “It was Doc who talked Rudy into coming out after he was arrested to meet those folks.” In Reynold Verret’s column, a sentence should state: “His legacy lives on in our alumni, the leaders he formed, and in so many across the nation who were blessed by his greatness.” The Advocate | The Times-Picayune regrets the errors.
High court to hear arguments Monday
BY LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY MAAZ AWAN
Smoke rises Saturday from the Afghan side of the Torkham border crossing point as trucks are parked along the roadside after clashes between Pakistani and Afghan forces.
Pakistan strikes inside Afghanistan ‘Open war’ continues on border BY MUNIR AHMED and ABDUL QAHAR AFGHAN Associated Press
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s military, backed by artillery and air power, struck more military installations deep inside Afghanistan overnight after Pakistan said it was in “open war” with its eastern neighbor. Pakistan on Saturday claimed more than 330 Afghan forces had been killed since fighting erupted Thursday night during a broad Afghan cross-border attack into Pakistan. Afghanistan rejected the figures as false. The casualty figures provided by either side could not be independently confirmed. The fighting was in response to Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan last Sunday. Pakistan said it was targeting the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, or TTP. The group is separate but closely allied with Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban. Afghanistan, however, said only civilians were killed in Sunday’s airstrike. After the Afghan attack, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif declared Friday: “Our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us.” Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Saturday that more than 331 Afghan forces had been killed and over 500 others wounded during the ongoing military strikes in Afghanistan. Pakistan destroyed 102 Afghan posts, captured 22 others and destroyed 163 tanks and armored vehicles at 37 locations, he said. Kabul has dismissed the casualty claim as inaccurate. On Saturday, the Afghan Defense Ministry claimed that Afghan forces killed 110 Pakistani soldiers during ongoing fighting. Enayatullah Khawarazmi, a ministry spokesman, wrote on X that Afghan forces also captured 27 Pakistani posts.
There was no immediate response from Islamabad. Pakistan’s army spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said on Friday that 12 Pakistani soldiers were killed in the fighting. The Afghan government’s deputy spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat, on Saturday accused Pakistan of targeting civilian areas in the provinces of Paktika, Khost, Kunar, Nangarhar and Kandahar, as well as refugee camps in Torkham and Kandahar. Fitrat said 52 people had been killed, most of them women and children, and 66 others wounded. Meanwhile, the United Nations wrote on X that major cities in Afghanistan were reportedly bombed by the Pakistani military on Friday, marking a new escalation and raising fears for civilians already struggling under the harsh rule of the Taliban authorities. On Friday, Afghan government spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said 13 Afghan forces were killed and 22 wounded. He also said 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed. Pakistan put its own military figures at 12 killed, 27 wounded and one soldier missing in action. Pakistan’s state-run media reported the country’s air force carried out strikes targeting key military installations in various areas of eastern Afghanistan. According to Pakistani authorities, hundreds of residents living near the northwestern Torkham border crossing had fled. In recent days, Pakistan has also deported dozens of Afghan refugees to Torkham. Ejaz Ul Haq, an Afghan refugee stranded near the Torkham border with his family, said he could not return to Afghanistan because of the fighting. Many others were struggling to obtain food during the fasting month of Ramadan, he said. Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry on Saturday said Afghanistan attacked Pakistani military bases in Miranshah and Spin Wam overnight, destroying military installations and causing heavy casualties in response to the ongoing airstrikes by Pakistan.
Mexican authorities hand over body of ‘El Mencho’ to his family By The Associated Press MEXICO CITY — Mexican authorities returned the body of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” to his family after he was killed by the Mexican army last week, officials said on Saturday. In a brief note on X, the Attorney General’s Office said that it handed over the body of El Mencho after completing all the necessary procedural protocols. “Genetic tests were carried out to confirm that there were indeed blood ties between the person who requested the release and the deceased,” the organ said. The killing of the country’s most powerful drug lord was met with a wave of retaliatory violence in some 20 states. More than 70 people were killed. The violence has fueled fears that the bloodshed could hurt tourism ahead of the FIFA World Cup later this year. “I don’t think handing over the body to the family is going to recreate the havoc,” said David Mora, a senior analyst and Mexico expert at global think tank International Crisis Group. “The violence that is going to come next is going to play out differently,” Mora added, pointing to the reorganization of the cartel following the decapitation of its leader and potential turf wars between smaller criminal groups. The U.S. State Department had offered
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY JON ORBACH
Newspapers hang on display for sale Monday in Mexico City, a day after the Mexican army killed Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as ‘El Mencho.’
a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest of El Mencho. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which he ran, is one of the most powerful and fastest growing criminal organizations in Mexico and began operating around 2009. In February 2025, the Trump administration designated the cartel as a foreign terrorist organization. The drug lord’s death was the Mexican government’s biggest prize yet to show the Trump administration in its efforts to crack down on the cartels.
WASHINGTON — Gun rights and cannabis legalization are usually on opposite ends of the political spectrum, but both movements have brought about seismic shifts in the United States in recent decades. Now those forces are lining up for a rare overlap in a case coming before the Supreme Court on Monday, and it is not the only unusual alliance. The Republican Trump administration will be defending a firearm restriction, with backing from gun-control groups typically more aligned with Democrats. On the other side is a pairing of the National Rifle Association and the American Civil Liberties Union. At stake is a federal law that bars people who regularly use marijuana from legally owning guns. It is an issue that has divided lower courts since a landmark 2022 Supreme Court decision expanded gun rights. Cecillia Wang, legal director at the ACLU, said the law violates the Second Amendment and is unconstitutionally vague about what it means to be a drug user. “We’re deeply concerned with the potential of this statute to basically give federal prosecutors a blank check,” she said. “Millions of Americans use marijuana and there is no way for them to know based on words of this statute whether they could be charged or convicted of this crime because they own a firearm.” Cannabis is legal for medicinal use in most states and for recreational use in about half the country. But the law also applies more widely against all illegal substances, meaning the case could allow broader legal gun use by other drug users. The group Everytown for Gun Safety said the law meets the Su-
preme Court’s requirement that gun laws must have a strong grounding in the nation’s history and tradition. “Restricting firearm use by illegal drug users is ‘as old as legislative recognition of the drug problem itself,’ ” attorneys wrote. Cannabis remains illegal on a federal level, though President Donald Trump has signed an order to fasttrack its reclassification as a less dangerous drug. His Justice Department is also asking the justices to revive a criminal case against Ali Danial Hemani, a Texas man who was charged with a felony because he had a gun in his house and acknowledged smoking marijuana every other day. FBI agents also found a small amount of cocaine when they searched his home as part of a broader investigation, but the gun charge was the only one filed against him. The conservative-leaning 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the case, finding that only people who are intoxicated while armed can be charged with a crime. The administration has argued in favor of gun rights in other cases, but government lawyers say this law is a justifiable restriction. “Habitual illegal drug users with firearms present unique dangers to society — especially because they pose a grave risk of armed, hostile encounters with police officers while impaired,” they wrote in court documents. The law fits within the nation’s history of restrictions on people who were frequently drunk, they argued. While the conservativemajority Supreme Court has expanded gun rights, it also has upheld a federal law disarming people who are subject to domestic violence restraining orders. The Department of Justice argues that drug users are similarly risky. But the NRA and other gun-rights groups, typically aligned with the GOP, are arrayed against the administration in Hemani’s case.
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