Month: July 2024

New York State police confirmed on Monday that five members from the same metro-Atlanta family died in a plane crash on their way home from a baseball tournament in upstate New York. The family members were returning from a baseball tournament in Cooperstown, N.Y., home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

New York State Police responded to a plane crash in Masonville, New York (90 miles south of Syracuse, N.Y.) on Sunday afternoon at approximately 2 p.m., and found the bodies of five occupants in the wreckage of a Piper Malibu Mirage.  The plane had departed from Albert S. Nader Regional Airport in Oneonta and was headed to Charleston, W.Va., for refueling and was schedule to continue from there to Cobb County International Airport in Georgia.

New York State police said in a statement: “A multi-agency effort search of the area, with the utilization of drones, ATVs and helicopters, led to the discovery of debris and ultimately to the downed aircraft.” Search teams found the bodies of five passengers in the wreckage.

Police later identified the victims as family members who hailed from Georgia: 76-year-old Roger Beggs (assumed to be the pilot), 43-year-old Laura Van Epps, 42-year-old Ryan Van Epps, 12-year-old James R. Van Epps and 10-year-old Harrison Van Epps. According to records obtained by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the family lived in Alpharetta, GA.

NYSP has not said what caused the plane to crash; Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp wrote in a statement: “As we learn of this tragic news, please join Marty, the girls, and me in praying for the loved ones of the Beggs and VanEpps families. We offer our deepest condolences to all who knew and loved them,”

The New York State Police Bureau of Criminal of Investigation, Collision Reconstruction Unit, and Forensic Identification Unit are working with the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Board to determine the cause of the crash.

Editorial credit: Robert Buchel / Shutterstock.com

On Monday, July 1, the Supreme Court deemed that Donald Trump is partially immune from his 2020 election subversion charges. The Court said “official” acts taken by a president are protected, but not steps he took as a candidate.

In a 6-3 ruling along ideological lines, the court ruled that Trump can be tried for any of his efforts to overturn his 2020 loss that were not taken in his official capacity. They ruled against Trump’s claim that he enjoys immunity from prosecution as a whole, but said that he is absolutely immune from being charged for “official” presidential acts.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the 6-3 majority: “The parties before us do not dispute that a former President can be subject to criminal prosecution for unofficial acts committed while in office. They also agree that some of the conduct described in the indictment includes actions taken by Trump in his unofficial capacity.”.

The majority asserted that there should be a clearer distinction between official presidential acts and private acts that happen to be done by a president, with the court’s syllabus reading: “The President enjoys no immunity for his unofficial acts, and not everything the President does is official. The President is not above the law. But under our system of separated powers, the President may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for his official acts.”. The decision brings the case back down to a lower court, which must now figure out whether any of the allegations in the Jan. 6 case fall under the category of “unofficial” acts, and whether a fair Jan. 6 trial could move forward with the Supreme Court’s ideology in mind.

On Truth Social, Trump called the decision a “BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND DEMOCRACY.”

Editorial credit: Jonah Elkowitz / Shutterstock.com