Barred from speaking, Trump to skip 9/11 25th anniversary ceremony in NYC

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump will snub the Sept. 11 ceremony at ground zero marking the 25th anniversary of the terror attacks reportedly because he wasn’t going to be permitted to deliver a speech at the event.

Instead of lower Manhattan, Trump is expected to attend a 9/11 ceremony at the Pentagon where he will make a speech, while Vice President JD Vance will replace him at the New York event.

The surprise decision by Trump to skip the main national ceremony marking a quarter century since the worst terror attack on American soil came in recent weeks after the president’s request to speak was rebuffed by leaders of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, The New York Times first reported.

The memorial works scrupulously to maintain what it sees as the nonpartisan and apolitical nature of the annual commemorations and has barred political leaders from making speeches for more than a decade.

—New York Daily News

Lindsay Clancy jurors ask to examine knife; full day of deliberations ends without verdict

PLYMOUTH, Mass. — During their first full day of deliberations, jurors in the Lindsay Clancy triple murder trial only asked one question: Could they see the knife Clancy used to slit her wrists and throat and the bottles of pills she was prescribed? The question came about 40 minutes after they resumed deliberating Friday morning.

After six alternates were chosen at random, there are nine women and three men in the deliberation room. The Duxbury mom doesn’t dispute that she killed her kids and instead argued that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she strangled them, then tried to kill herself in January 2023.

Because the defense argued Clancy wasn’t criminally responsible at the time of the killings, the jury was also instructed on criminal responsibility and what the Commonwealth must prove beyond a reasonable doubt to get a guilty verdict.

In Massachusetts, someone can be found not guilty by reason of insanity if they were suffering from a mental disease or defect at the time of the alleged crime, and if that disease or defect impeded their ability to understand right and wrong or their capacity to conform their behavior to the law.

—Boston Herald

Federal judge dismisses reassigned principal's lawsuit against Texas school district

FORT WORTH, Texas — A federal First Amendment lawsuit filed by a former Fort Worth Independent School District principal against the school district was dismissed Thursday after an ongoing battle over her reassignment, which stemmed from an investigation into her social media posts.

U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman issued an opinion and order marking the end of a lawsuit filed in June by Shayma Alzubi, who was reassigned as a principal program administrator after facing backlash from her social media posts explaining Shariah law and supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.

The reassignment came days after she was announced as principal of Western Hills High School in May. In the lawsuit, she alleged the district violated her free speech and discriminated against her because of her Muslim religion.

On Thursday, Pittman stated that personnel matters of public agencies, such as local school districts, do not rise to the level of federal judicial review.

—Fort Worth Star-Telegram

‘We won.’ ‘Winding down.’ ‘Close to over.’: 6 months of Trump on the Iran war

WASHINGTON — For the last six months, President Donald Trump has attempted to control the narrative of the Iran war.

As days, weeks and months passed, he repeatedly said that an agreement to end the conflict was close at hand and that Iran was already defeated. Between fraught negotiations, Trump has gone from conciliatory to antagonistic, characterizing Iran’s new leadership as more “rational” than their predecessors, only to later call them “sick individuals.”

There have even been times the commander in chief contradicted himself and his own Cabinet in the same week — and sometimes, the same day.

Friday marks the sixth month of the war launched by the United States and Israel. Among U.S. forces, there have been at least 18 killed and 758 wounded, according to Pentagon data. The Human Rights Activists News Agency puts the death toll in Iran at 3,636. In Lebanon, officials, say more than 4,300 have died. The Israeli military reported 72 deaths, and at least 50 civilians have died, according to news reports.

—Los Angeles Times