BALTIMORE
Rough rides: Relative calm has returned to the streets of Baltimore, but the aftershocks from last week’s unrest continue to reverberate. In a case eerily similar to Freddie Gray’s death, the family of another man who died after being paralyzed riding in the back of a Baltimore police vanwants a criminal investigation into his case. Dondi Johnson Sr., a Baltimore plumber arrested in 2005 for public urination, died two weeks after he was injured in a “rough ride,” in which a police van is deliberately driven erratically. Johnson’s family sued the police department and in 2010 they were awarded a $7.4 million; the amount they received was much lower, $216,500, because of a legal cap. During the trial, a former Baltimore cop testified that rough rides were an “unsanctioned technique” of the department.
TEXAS SHOOTING
Probe continues: Were the would-be shooters in Garland, Texas a pair of lone wolves or were they being directed by others? U.S. officials are investigating the connections between Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, and terrorists abroad. A U.S. official said the incident was “certainly more than just inspiration” by ISIS but that assessment does not mean that the terror group gave the gunmen specific instructions. Simpson appears to have had online ties to a British ISIS recruit in Syria and an American jihadi operating in Somalia.
U.S.-CUBA RELATIONS
Boat ride: Imagine it: You drive your car onto a ferry in Miami and about nine hours later you’re in Havana. An international traveler’s pipe dream? Perhaps not. Licenses allowing ferry servicebetween the United States and Cuba were recently issued by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control. The lifting of the ban on ferries comes as President Obama works to thaw relations with Havana. At least two Florida-based lines said they had received licenses to operate ferry routes between ports in Florida and Cuba. But don’t pack your bags just yet. The U.S. ban on tourist travel to the island remains in effect, so as of right now, the ferry service will only benefit those who don’t already need special permission to go to Cuba — Cuban-Americans visiting family, officials on government trips and journalists.
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source: CNN.com
