US NATIONAL NEWS
Official: Clinic Suspect Made ‘No More Baby Parts’ Comment
Published
11 years agoon
By
Willie DavidCOLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Robert Lewis Dear was reclusive, and he seldom spoke to neighbors in a quiet patch of woods in rural Colorado where he lived.
Now, it’s his words that are drawing the most attention as police try to discern his motivations for a shooting attack they say he carried out Friday at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs that killed three people, including a police officer.
After his arrest, Dear said “no more baby parts,” said a law enforcement official, who could not elaborate and spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing investigation.
Planned Parenthood cited witnesses as saying the gunman was motivated by his opposition to abortion.
The attack thrust the clinic to the center of the ongoing debate over Planned Parenthood, which was re-ignited in July when anti-abortion activists released undercover video they said showed the group’s personnel negotiating the sale of fetal organs.
Planned Parenthood has denied seeking any payments beyond legally permitted reimbursement costs for donating the organs to researchers. Still, the National Abortion Federation says it has since seen a rise in threats at clinics nationwide.
Anti-abortion activists, part of a group called the Center for Medical Progress, denounced the “barbaric killing spree in Colorado Springs by a violent madman” and offered prayers for the dead and wounded and for their families.
The Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs provides women’s health services and has long been the site of regular anti-abortion protests. A Roman Catholic priest who has held weekly Mass in front of the clinic for 20 years said Dear wasn’t part of his group.
“I don’t know him from Adam,” the Rev. Bill Carmody said. “I don’t recognize him at all.”
Police haven’t said what motivated Dear, 57, to carry out the attack.
Dear, who was in custody and is expected to make his first court appearance on Monday, was described by neighbors as reclusive. They said he stashed food in the woods, avoided eye contact and warned neighbors about government spying.
At a vigil Saturday at All Souls Unitarian Church, Rev. Nori Rost called the gunman a “domestic terrorist.” In the back of the room, someone held a sign that said: “Women’s bodies are not battlefields. Neither is our town.”
Vicki Cowart, the regional head of Planned Parenthood, drew a standing ovation when she walked to the pulpit. She promised to quickly reopen the clinic. “We will adapt. We will square our shoulders and we will go on,” she said.
After her remarks, a woman in the audience stood up, objected to the vigil becoming a “political statement” and left.
Cowart said the gunman “broke in” to the clinic Friday but didn’t get past a locked door leading to the main part of the facility. She said there was no armed security when the shooting began. He later surrendered to police after an hourslong standoff.
In the parking lot of the two-story building, one man said the gunman shot at him as he pulled his car out, blasting two holes in his windshield. Inside, one worker ducked under a table and called her brother to tell him to take care of her kids if she was killed.
At one point, an officer whispered reports into his radio as he crept through the building. Others relayed information from surveillance cameras and victims in hiding. “We’ve got a report of a victim texting from just east of the lobby,” someone said.
In the end, a six-year veteran University of Colorado police officer was killed. Two civilians also died, though their identities weren’t immediately released. Five other officers and four people were hospitalized.
Cowart said all 15 clinic employees survived and worked hard to make sure everyone else got into safe spaces and stayed quiet.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said the city is mourning and praised the bravery of first responders. He said the nation is wrestling with the causes of violence but that it’s too early to discuss that while the city is reeling.
“This is the kind of thing that hits the entire community in the gut,” he said.
Cowart said the organization would learn from the attack. When asked if the clinic should have more security, she said the clinic’s clients shouldn’t have to walk through metal detectors.
The attack marked the latest mass shooting to stun the nation. It drew the now-familiar questions about a gunman’s motives and whether anyone, from government to relatives, could have done anything to prevent an attack.
Those who knew the 6-foot-4-inch, 250-pound Dear said he seemed to have few religious or political leanings.
Neighbors who lived beside Dear’s former South Carolina home say he hid food in the woods as if he was a survivalist and said he lived off selling prints of his uncle’s paintings of Southern plantations and the Masters golf tournament.
John Hood said Saturday that when he moved to Walterboro, Dear was living in a doublewide mobile home next door. Hood said Dear seemed to be a loner and very strange but not dangerous.
He pointed to a wooden fence separating their land and said he put it up because Dear liked to skinny dip.
Hood said that Dear rarely talked to them, and when he did, he tended to offer unsolicited advice such as recommending that Hood put a metal roof on his house so the U.S. government couldn’t spy on him.
“He was really strange and out there, but I never thought he would do any harm,” he said.
Dear also lived part of the time in a cabin with no electricity or running water in Black Mountain, North Carolina. He kept mostly to himself, his neighbors said. When he did talk, it was a rambling combination of a number of topics that didn’t make sense.
He tended to avoid eye contact, said James Russell, who lived a few hundred feet down the mountain from Dear’s cabin.
“If you talked to him, nothing with him was very cognitive,” Russell said.
Other neighbors knew Dear, too, but they didn’t want to give their names because they said they were scared of him.
Russell and others said the only companion they saw with him was a mangy dog that looked to be in such bad shape they called animal control because they worried he was beating it.
In the small town of Hartsel, Colorado, about 60 miles west of Colorado Springs, about a dozen police vehicles and fire trucks were parked outside a small white trailer belonging to Dear located on a sprawling swath of land.
Property records indicate Dear purchased the land about a year ago.
Another law enforcement official said authorities searched the trailer Saturday but found no explosives. The official, who has direct knowledge of the case, said authorities also talked with a woman living in the trailer. The official, who lacked authorization to speak publicly about the investigation, spoke on condition of anonymity.
Zigmond Post, who lives near the RV where Dear lived, said he didn’t have many interactions with Dear, but he said the suspect once gave him a pamphlet opposing President Barack Obama.
“He didn’t talk about them or anything. He just said ‘Look them over when you get a chance,’ ” Post said.
Jamie Heffelman, owner of the Highline Cafe in Hartsel, said residents would occasionally see Dear at the post office to get his mail, but he never said much. “Nobody really knows him. He stays to himself,” she said.
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Politics
State Rep. Angie Nixon Condemns Deadly ICE Shooting, Calls for Independent Investigation
Published
1 week agoon
July 10, 2026JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (FNN NEWS) — Following the fatal shooting of 52-year-old father and construction worker Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Houston, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and Florida State Representative Angie Nixon released the following statement:
Statement from Rep. Angie Nixon
“Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was a father who spent decades building homes and providing for his family. He was fatally shot in the street by an ICE agent operating from an unmarked vehicle. My heart breaks for his wife and three sons.
“Our nation faces a moral choice. We must stop investing billions of taxpayer dollars in an agency that, in my view, terrorizes communities, operates with too little accountability, and often conducts enforcement actions without body cameras or clear identification. Those resources should instead be invested in strengthening our communities and helping families meet their basic needs. I believe ICE should be abolished.
“I stand in full solidarity with Lorenzo’s family in calling for a fully independent and transparent investigation into his death. I also call for the immediate release of his brother and the other individuals who were detained during this incident if they are being held without legal justification.”
Key Points
- Rep. Angie Nixon expressed condolences to the family of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.
- She called for a fully independent and transparent investigation into the fatal shooting.
- Nixon criticized ICE’s enforcement practices and renewed her call to abolish the agency.
- She urged the release of Lorenzo’s brother and others detained during the incident if their continued detention is not legally justified.
US NATIONAL NEWS
U.S. Expands Sanctions Targeting Iran’s Financial Networks and Regime Financiers
Published
1 week agoon
July 10, 2026WASHINGTON (FNN NEWS) — The Trump administration announced a new round of sanctions Friday targeting individuals and businesses accused of helping finance Iran’s ruling elite and facilitating international financial transactions on behalf of the Iranian regime.
The sanctions, announced by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, target a global financial network that U.S. officials say supports Iran’s Supreme Leader and other senior regime officials.
Global Financial Network Targeted
According to the administration, the sanctions focus on Ali Ansari, a Dubai-based Iranian national accused of managing an extensive network of real estate and commercial holdings across multiple countries on behalf of Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s Supreme Leader, and other regime insiders.
U.S. officials said the network includes assets and business interests in:
- Germany
- United Kingdom
- Spain
- Cyprus
- United Arab Emirates
- Other international jurisdictions
The administration alleges the network has been used to help Iranian regime officials maintain access to international financial markets.
Currency Exchange Houses Sanctioned
The Treasury Department also imposed sanctions on three Iran-based currency exchange firms and their associated leadership:
- Mohammad Darbani and Partners
- Lavasani and Partners
- Mohsen Khandan and Partners
The sanctions also extend to the firms’ managing partners and affiliated front companies.
According to the administration, these entities allegedly enabled Iran to obtain foreign currency and conduct international financial transactions despite existing U.S. sanctions.
Administration Cites Maximum Pressure Campaign
The White House said the latest designations are part of President Donald Trump’s broader strategy to increase economic pressure on Iran.
Administration officials said they will continue targeting individuals, businesses and financial institutions—including foreign entities—that facilitate illicit Iranian commerce or assist the regime in evading U.S. sanctions.
The administration maintains that the sanctions are intended to pressure Iran to end what it describes as destabilizing activities in the region and to hold accountable those who enable corruption within the Iranian government.
Authorities Used for Sanctions
The sanctions were imposed under multiple executive authorities, including:
- Executive Order 13902, targeting Iran’s financial and petroleum sectors.
- Executive Order 13876, focusing on Iran’s Supreme Leader and affiliated individuals.
- Executive Order 13224, as amended by Executive Order 13886, which provides counterterrorism sanctions authority.
Treasury officials said the latest designations build upon previous actions by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) targeting Iran’s shadow banking system and currency exchange networks.
US NATIONAL NEWS
White House: Trump Administration Deports Convicted Child Sex Offender After Minnesota Pardon
Published
1 week agoon
July 10, 2026WASHINGTON (FNN NEWS) — The White House announced Friday that the Trump administration deported a Laotian national convicted of sexually abusing a child after Minnesota officials granted him a pardon.
Conviction and Deportation
According to the White House, Tou Lue Vang, a Laotian national, was convicted in Minnesota of repeatedly sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl. An immigration judge ordered his removal from the United States in 2006.
The White House said Secretary of State Marco Rubio terminated Vang’s legal status, allowing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to carry out his deportation.
White House Criticizes Minnesota Leaders
The administration sharply criticized Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison, alleging they attempted to prevent Vang’s deportation by granting him a pardon.
In a statement, the White House accused the two Democratic leaders of placing the interests of a convicted child sex offender ahead of public safety and federal immigration enforcement.
The administration argued the deportation demonstrates President Donald Trump’s commitment to removing noncitizens convicted of serious crimes from the United States.
Administration Statement
The White House said the case underscores the administration’s immigration enforcement priorities.
“Under President Trump, criminal illegal aliens who rape children will be found, arrested, and removed,” the White House said.
The administration also asserted that state actions would not prevent federal immigration authorities from enforcing U.S. immigration law.
Political Dispute
The case has become part of the broader national debate over immigration enforcement and the relationship between state criminal justice decisions and federal immigration authority.
Minnesota officials have not been included in the White House announcement, and any response from Gov. Walz, Attorney General Ellison or their offices was not immediately available.