Month: August 2025

The man accused of fatally stabbing a couple while they were hiking with two of their daughters at Devil’s Den State Park in Arkansas pleaded not guilty to two capital murder charges on Thursday.

Andrew James McGann, a 28-year-old elementary school teacher, was captured and arrested in Springdale, Arkansas after a five-day search.  He was charged with two counts of capital murder in the killing of Clinton David Brink, 43, and Cristen Amanda Brink, 41, who were hiking with two of their daughters at Devil’s Den on July 26. The couple’s daughters, who are 7 and 9, were not hurt and are being cared for by family members. Devil’s Den is a 2,500-acre state park about 140 miles northwest of Little Rock, the capital city of Arkansas. The park is surrounded by the Ozark National Forest, and some hiking trails lead into those woods.

According to NBC affiliate KNWA-TV, McGann hardly spoke and showed little emotion during the arraignment, which lasted around 30 minutes. McGann’s lawyers from the county public defender’s office declined to comment. In a brief statement, the Washington County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said that “the state continues to pursue the death penalty” in the case.  He is being held without bond at the Washington County Detention Center until the end of his trial; his next court date was scheduled for Nov. 14.

Investigators believe that Clinton was attacked first, while Cristen brought the kids to safety. Authorities said she then returned to help her husband before being attacked herself.  A witness reported seeing an individual with blood on his face leaving the park’s trail and getting into a black sedan, with a second witness identifying the black sedan as a Kia Stinger. McGann evaded authorities for several days after the Brinks were found dead, before authorities were able to match his car to the car described by the witnesses. He was arrested on July 30 in a barbershop while getting his hair cut in Springdale.

Authorities said that McGann’s DNA was found at the crime scene, and also made statements to investigators “indicating that he had committed these heinous acts.” Arkansas State Police Col. Mike Hagar previously said the killings appeared to be “a completely random event” because there’s “absolutely no indication, no reason whatsoever to believe there was any connection at all” between the Brinks and McGann. A motive for the attack remains unknown.

Officials said McGann recently moved to Arkansas for a new job at an elementary school in the Springdale Public School district, after teaching in various schools throughout Texas and Oklahoma.  McGann passed background checks for his employment by Oklahoma’s Education Department and for the two districts in the state where he taught. Officials also said McGann had no criminal history and no known mental illness history.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that his administration is opening a second immigration detention facility dubbed “Deportation Depot.” The new facility in north Florida comes one month after the state opened a detention center in the Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

DeSantis said at a news conference Thursday: “We are authorizing and will be soon opening this new illegal immigration detention, processing and deportation facility here in North Florida. We are calling this the Deportation Depot,” adding that more than 1,300 detainees will be held inside the facility at Baker Correctional Institution in Sanderson, Florida, a temporarily closed state prison about 45 miles west of Jacksonville near Osceola National Forest.

DeSantis added: “We’ve been securing the border, enforcing immigration laws and removing illegal aliens who are in our society now, sending them back to their home country. We have done more on this than any other state by a country mile.”

Last week, a federal judge temporarily halted any further construction on the Alligator Alcatraz facility to prevent possible harm to the sensitive Everglades ecosystem. The state of Florida and the Trump administration can continue to use the facility and house detainees there, but any further construction must be halted for 14 days, per the judge’s order said.

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Evacuations are underway in parts of Alaska’s capital of Juneau after a glacial outburst sent water rushing down the Mendenhall River into areas in the region, which is expected to cause major flooding. The flooding is being caused by a “glacier-dammed lake outburst” (GLOF) which occurs when a lake dammed by ice or a glacial deposit gives way and releases heavy amounts of water into river systems further downstream.

The city and borough of Juneau announced that it “is aware of the presence of water in certain areas” and that anyone within the flood zone of the Mendenhall River should evacuate the area. A Facebook post read: “A glacial outburst has occurred at Suicide Basin. The basin is releasing and flooding is expected along the Mendenhall Lake and River.”

Officials have recommended that residents within the 17-foot lake level inundation zone evacuate the area until the water recedes and an “All Clear” message is sent via the wireless emergency alert system.  The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) also issued a temporary flight restriction (TFR) around the area.

The National Weather Service (NWS) office in Juneau issued a Flood Warning for the Mendenhall River and said that as of early Wednesday morning, the river was over 15 feet and was continuing to rise: “Our forecast right now, we’re starting to think that we’re going to crest, we were messaging 8 a.m. though 12 p.m., we’re thinking our crest might be closer to 8 in the morning and might be closer to the higher end of the spectrum,” with forecasters estimating that the river was expected to crest between 16.25 feet and 16.75 feet.

Suicide Basin is a side basin of the Mendenhall Glacier above Juneau. Since 2011, the NWS said Suicide Basin has released glacial lake outburst floods that caused inundation along Mendenhall Lake and River annually with a record flooding event taking place on Aug. 6, 2024, that had caused the river to reach a then-record level of 15.99 feet. As of 10 a.m. EDT Wednesday, the river had already reached 16.17 feet and was still rising. The flood warning is scheduled to remain in effect until 12 p.m. EDT on Thursday.

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On Wednesday, President Trump had a virtual meeting with numerous European Union leaders, as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, ahead of his scheduled summit in Alaska on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Organized by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the call on Wednesday included Trump, Zelenskyy (who joined Merz in Berlin), Vice President JD Vance, and several European leaders including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.  Trump joined the call from the White House, writing ahead of the meeting: “Will be speaking to European Leaders in a short while. They are great people who want to see a deal done.”

The EU on Tuesday demanded that the Ukrainian people should determine their own future and that no peace deal with Russia could be decided without Ukraine at the table. Leaders of 26 of 27 European Union nations said in a statement that viable negotiations must be within the framework of a cease-fire or easing of hostilities and warned of the threat the war posed to European and international security. Merz said in an interview over the weekend: “We cannot accept that territorial issues between Russia and America are discussed or even decided over the heads of Europeans, over the heads of Ukrainians. I assume that the American government sees it the same way. That is why there is this close coordination.”

Trump said on Wednesday said after the Alaska meeting, he hopes there will be a second meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy. Asked by a reporter at an event at the Kennedy Center whether there will be consequences for Putin if he doesn’t agree to stop the war after the Friday meeting, Mr. Trump said, “There will be very severe consequences,” but declined to elaborate.

Merz, standing alongside Zelenskyy, told journalists in a press conference after meeting with Mr. Trump: “U.S. President Trump will start discussions with President Putin in Alaska about bringing the war to an end, and important decisions could be reached. We as Europeans are doing everything we can to help set the agenda for that meeting. We’re hoping that Donald Trump has success in that meeting in Anchorage.”

Merz said that he and Zelenskyy had spoken with Mr. Trump together: “In Alaska, security interests of Europe and Ukraine must be protected. That is part of what we discussed with President Trump. We were together on the conditions of this meeting and the goals of this meeting on Friday … We want to make sure that the right chronology happens: that there is a ceasefire and that there is an agreement that is discussed after that. A legal recognition of Russian ownership of this territory cannot happen. There have to be robust security guarantees. The sovereignty of Ukraine has to be respected. Negotiations have to be part of a larger transatlantic strategy, and has to be part of necessary pressure on Russia. If there is no movement on the Russian side, we and the U.S. have to put more pressure on Russia. President Trump knows this position and largely agrees with it, and we had a good conversation with each other. Everything … needs to be discussed with Ukraine”

Zelenskyy thanked Merz and said “everything regarding Ukraine needs to be discussed with Ukraine. We have to be part of this conversation .. President Trump has supported us today, and the U.S. is ready to support us.”  The Ukrainian leader added that he told Trump and the European leaders that “Putin is bluffing,” and that “Putin doesn’t want peace. He wants to occupy our country, and we understand it. Putin cannot fool us. We need to pressure him. Sanctions not only from the U.S., but from the European Union. Together our union of partners can really, really stop Putin’s war. Sanctions and increasing sanctions on Russia if they are not agreeing to a ceasefire — this is very effective and they are working.”

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The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday that George Washington University was in violation of federal civil rights laws by “acting deliberately indifferent” to instances of anti-Semitism on campus.

In a letter from Assistant Attorney General Civil Rights Division Harmeet K. Dhillon to GWU President Ellen M. Granberg, the DOJ stated that the department had finished its probe of the allegations against the university and found that GWU’s response to incidents of anti-Semitic discrimination and harassment of Jewish and Israeli students that “despite actual notice of the abuses occurring on its campus, GWU was deliberately indifferent to the complaints it received, the misconduct that occurred, and the harms that were suffered by its students and faculty, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 .. The antisemitic, hate-based misconduct by GWU students directed at Jewish GWU students, faculty, and employees was, in a word, shocking. The behavior was demonstrably abhorrent, immoral, and, most importantly, illegal.”

The allegations stem from an encampment that students created in GWU’s University Yard, in the middle of campus: “The purpose of the agitators’ efforts was to frighten, intimidate, and deny Jewish, Israeli, and American-Israeli students free and unfettered access to GWU’s educational environment. This is the definition of hostility and a ‘hostile environment.’ [DOJ’s] investigation found numerous incidents of Jewish students being harassed, abused, intimidated and assaulted by protesters. To be clear, Jewish students were afraid to attend class, to be observed, or, worse, to be ‘caught’ and perhaps physically beaten on GWU’s campus.”  The letter offered “the opportunity to resolve this matter through a voluntary resolution agreement.”

The letter refers to campus protests in April and May 2024, where students staged pro-Palestinian protests at universities across the country, including rallies and encampments; however, some Jewish students experienced alleged anti-Semitism on several university campuses.

GWU spokesperson Shannon McClendon said in a statement: “GW condemns antisemitism, which has absolutely no place on our campuses or in a civil and humane society. Moreover, our actions clearly demonstrate our commitment to addressing antisemitic actions and promoting an inclusive campus environment by upholding a safe, respectful, and accountable environment. “

GWU is one of dozens of American universities that have been targeted by the Trump administration with civil rights and constitutional investigations in connection to protests over Israel’s war in Gaza. Trump has been cracking down on institutions of higher learning over a slew of allegations, from not protecting Jewish students to illegally enforcing diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

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E.J. Antoni, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), has proposed pausing the release of monthly employment reports in favor of more reliable quarterly updates.

In an interview with Fox News Digital on Monday (ahead of his nomination) that was published Tuesday, Antoni argued that the BLS’s current approach to tracking U.S. job numbers is flawed and often misleading, and suggested it be replaced with “more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data.”  Antoni said: “How on earth are businesses supposed to plan — or how is the Fed supposed to conduct monetary policy — when they don’t know how many jobs are being added or lost in our economy? It’s a serious problem that needs to be fixed immediately. Until it is corrected, the BLS should suspend issuing the monthly job reports but keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data.”

Antoni – currently the chief economist at the Heritage Foundation – believes the monthly reports should be replaced temporarily with quarterly reports that offer greater accuracy. This change, he said, should remain in place until the BLS overhauls its data collection methods to produce dependable monthly figures: “From Wall Street investors to policymakers in Washington, key decisions hinge on these numbers,” Antoni noted. “If people lose confidence in the data, the consequences can ripple across the economy.”

Trump announced Antoni’s nomination just days after firing former BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on August 1. That decision came after the agency reported that 73,000 jobs were created in July—less than half the 147,000 initially reported for June. Trump accused McEntarfer of deliberately inflating job reports before the upcoming November 5 election to benefit the Biden administration. According to Trump, later adjustments erased a total of 818,000 jobs from the record. McEntarfer had been nominated to the BLS post by President Joe Biden in July 2023 and was confirmed by the Senate in January 2024.

Trump praised Antoni, writing Monday on Truth Social: “I am pleased to announce that I am nominating Highly Respected Economist, Dr. E.J. Antoni, as the next Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Our Economy is booming, and E.J. will ensure that the Numbers released are HONEST and ACCURATE. I know E.J. Antoni will do an incredible job in this new role. Congratulations E.J.!”

Asked whether the BLS would continue to release monthly jobs reports, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “I believe that is the plan and that’s the hope, and that these monthly reports will be data that the American people can trust. We need to restore new leadership that we trust” at the BLS, adding that “we need to look at the means and the methods of how the United States is acquiring this very important data. The goal, of course, is to provide honest and good data for the American people to make very important economic decisions on.”

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