National Roundup

Pennsylvania
Hundreds gather at church hosting ceremony ­featuring AR-15s
NEWFOUNDLAND, Pa. (AP) — Hundreds of worshippers are gathered inside a Pennsylvania-based church at a blessing ceremony for couples featuring their AR-15 rifles.

World Peace and Unification Sanctuary in Newfoundland believes the AR-15 symbolizes the “rod of iron” in the biblical book of Revelation, and encouraged couples to bring the weapons to the commitment ceremony Wednesday morning. The AR-15 is the gun used in the Florida high school massacre.

About 50 weapons, secured by orange zip-ties, have been checked in so far by the crown-wearing worshippers.

A church leader is telling those gathered that the ceremony is a blessing of couples, “not a blessing of inanimate objects.” He called the AR-15s and crowns “religious accoutrements.”

Outside the church are two sign-waving protesters. One sign says “shame” and the other calls the group an “armed cult.”

Florida
Woman charged with shooting dog in argument with fiancé
TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a Florida woman fatally shot her and her fiancé’s dog during an argument.

The Tampa Bay Times reports that 27-year-old Giselle Taylor was arrested last week and charged with animal cruelty.

Tarpon Springs police say Taylor got angry at her fiancé because he wouldn’t crack her back. An arrest report says she grabbed a 9mm handgun from the garage and loaded it.

The report says Taylor told officers she intended to scare her fiancé, but when she didn’t get the response she wanted, she pointed the gun at their 2-year-old boxer and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the dog’s upper torso, killing it.
Police say Taylor left the house but was arrested a short time later.

Taylor is free on $5,000 bail. Jail records didn’t list an attorney.

Indiana
Transgender ­student sues school district over restrooms
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A transgender student is suing a southern Indiana school district for denying him use of male restrooms.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a federal complaint against the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. last week on behalf of the student. It says the high school junior identified only as J.A.W. was told he’s not allowed to use male restrooms and instead could use the school nurse’s bathroom.

J.A.W. is listed as female on his birth certificate but identifies as male.

School district spokesman Jason Woebkenberg tells The Indianapolis Star the district believes it meets state and federal legal requirements as they relate to transgender students.

A federal appeals court in May ruled in favor of a transgender student who challenged a Wisconsin school district’s policy limiting his bathroom usage.

Virginia
Charlottesville removes tarps from Confederate monuments
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — The city of Charlottesville, Virginia, says it has complied with a judge’s order to remove the black shrouds installed over two Confederate monuments after a white nationalist rally last summer.
Charlottesville tweeted that city staff removed the shrouds Wednesday morning.

A day earlier, a circuit court judge said they had to come down. The decision came during a hearing in a lawsuit against the city over its attempts to remove the monuments.

Separately, The Daily Progress reports another city statue of a surveyor and soldier was hit with graffiti Tuesday.

The graffiti said, “I can’t breathe.” Those were the last words of Eric Garner, a black man who died after a New York police officer’s chokehold. His words have become a rallying cry in the national debate over policing, brutality and race.

Ohio
Milkman accused of sneaking drugs, phones into prison
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A longtime milkman delivered more than what the labels on his packages promised, smuggling marijuana, tobacco and cellphones into an Ohio prison hidden inside milk cartons, a prosecutor said.

Ray Adams was in contact with an inmate at Lebanon Correctional Facility who facilitated the deliveries and set up payments, according to Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell.

Adams, an employee of Martins Ferry-based United Dairy Inc., made thousands of dollars sneaking the items in over time, Fornshell said

On Jan. 8, authorities searched the nearly 30,000 half-pint milk cartons Adams was delivering that day and found contraband, including 12 cellphones, in 30 of them.

Adams, 50, has not yet entered a plea to charges of conveying drugs and cellphones and remains free on bond. His attorney hasn’t returned messages seeking comment.

The family-owned United Dairy would never tolerate such activity and Adams was fired immediately, said human resources director Doug Longenette.

“It’s just a sad situation all the way around,” he said Wednes­day. “We hope our employees would think before they did something like that.”

Prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith declined to comment because of the pending criminal charges against Adams.

Ohio began relying on outside companies to deliver milk to prisons after selling off its dairy cows in 2016. Reducing contraband was one of several factors the prisons director cited at the time in support of the move.

“The department anticipates that phasing out prison farming operations will also minimize the opportunities for passing illegal contraband into our prisons,” according to an April 2016 fact sheet from the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

Adams has been a driver with United Dairy for 14 years and a prison milk deliveryman for the past two years, Fornshell said.

Investigators believe the contraband scheme was dreamed up last August.

Before making deliveries, Adams would meet a contact at a nearby highway gas station and receive substitute milk cartons containing the contraband before entering the prison, Fornshell said. An inmate took it from there.

“It’s not being brought in just to be randomly passed out to whoever — ‘Hey it’s your lucky day, you’re one of 30 winners today,’” Fornshell said.

“Somebody on the inside had to be looking for the milk cartons coming in, knowing how they were going to be marked, knowing what day they were coming in,” the prosecutor said.

Fornshell said the investigation was ongoing and there could be additional charges.