North America

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge on New York’s highest court has been referred to a disciplinary commission and could be kicked off the bench for failing to comply with a rule requiring proof of vaccination against COVID-19.

Judge Jenny Rivera, one of seven jurists on the state’s Court of Appeals, is barred from court facilities and has been working remotely since October, court officials said. She is one of four judges statewide who have been referred to the state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct for being out of compliance with the mandate that applies to all court personnel.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota prosecutors declined to file charges Wednesday against a Minneapolis police SWAT team officer who fatally shot Amir Locke while executing an early morning no-knock search warrant in a downtown apartment in February.

Locke, 22, who was Black, was staying on a couch in the apartment when authorities entered it on Feb. 2 without knocking as part of an investigation into a homicide in neighboring St. Paul.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-California, announced Tuesday that he has tested positive for the coronavirus.

“I’m feeling fine, and grateful to be vaccinated and boosted,” the 61-year-old Schiff tweeted. “In the coming days, I will quarantine and follow CDC guidelines. And remember, please get vaccinated!”

Schiff chairs the House Intelligence Committee and represents the 28th Congressional District.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Voters in California’s sprawling farm belt will fill a congressional seat Tuesday left vacant after Republican Rep. Devin Nunes resigned in the middle of his term to lead former President Donald Trump’s fledgling media company.

The special election in the Republican-leaning 22nd District has been largely ignored as national Democrats and Republicans fixate on midterm elections that will determine control of Congress in 2023.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Violent storms killed at least two people, one in Georgia and another in Texas, on Tuesday as hail, strong winds and tornadoes tore across the South, where authorities warned a second day of dangerous weather of violent weather could follow.

A woman died Tuesday evening in Pembroke, Georgia, where a suspected tornado ripped part of the roof from the Bryan County courthouse, destroyed the entrance to a local government building across the street and damaged homes in nearby neighborhoods, said Matthew Kent, a county government spokesman.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Former Trump administration officials are pressing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to declare an “invasion” along the U.S-Mexico border and give thousands of state troopers and National Guard members sweeping new authority to turn back migrants, essentially bestowing enforcement powers that have been a federal responsibility.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A wounded man arrested in connection with a Sacramento shooting that killed six people and injured a dozen more had been released from prison weeks earlier and was rejected for even earlier release after prosecutors argued he “clearly has little regard for human life,” documents show.

WASHINGTON (AP) — As gruesome videos and photos of bodies emerge from the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, Kremlin-backed media are denouncing them as an elaborate hoax — a narrative that journalists in Ukraine have shown to be false.

Denouncing news as fake or spreading false reports to sow confusion and undermine its adversaries are tactics that Moscow has used for years and refined with the advent of social media in places like Syria.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kyiv was a Russian defeat for the ages. The fight started poorly for the invaders and went downhill from there.

When President Vladimir Putin launched his war on Feb. 24 after months of buildup on Ukraine’s borders, he sent hundreds of helicopter-borne commandos — the best of the best of Russia’s “spetsnaz” special forces soldiers — to assault and seize a lightly defended airfield on Kyiv’s doorstep.

MEXICO CITY, April 5 (Reuters) - Mexico's president on Tuesday ramped up pressure on opposition lawmakers to support a constitutional energy reform a day after they said they would reject the bill, suggesting those who did not would be "traitors" to the country.

The bill, which congressional leaders have said they want to vote on next week, is a central plank of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's drive to give greater control of the electricity market to the state over private companies.