INTERNATIONAL
Syrian Family killed in potential Us airstrike
Eight Syrian family members died in an airstrike that appeared to have been launched by a U.S.- led coalition on Monday.
The family was fleeing a fight between U.S.-allied Syrian forces and the Islamic State in a northern Syrian town called Tabqa. The family’s vehicle was struck and five children died. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the children were between the ages of six months and 15 years old.
Tabqa is largely under IS control with only U.S. backed Syrian forces flying missions over it. The U.S. and its allies are trying to remove IS from Tabqa before moving forward to Raqqa, the de facto capital of IS.
The U.S. and allies entered Tabqa on Monday to remove IS, but it still remains under jihadi group’s control.
NATIONAL
New Orleans relocates confederate memorials
New Orleans began the first of four controversial scheduled relocation of Confederate memorials early Monday morning. Workers were reported to have been wearing masks and tactical vests with police snipers positioned on rooftops nearby.
The relocation came after years of public debates and legal battles since city officials attempted to move the monuments in 2015. Last month a federal judge in Louisiana affirmed the city’s right to remove the monuments and the city shortly gained private funding to complete the project.
The city released a statement that said the monuments would be removed because they “failed to appropriately reflect the values of diversity and inclusion that make New Orleans strong today.”
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said the relocation of the Confederate memorials are not a political move or retaliation against a specific group, but instead show that the city can understand and reconcile and choose a better future.
The Battle of Liberty Place monument was the first to be removed and the project began a few hours before sunrise on Monday morning. The monument was erected in 1891 to mark a deadly fight between members of the “Crescent City White League” and state militia that included officers from the police force.
LOCAL
Courts declare mistrial for men in bundy case
A United States District Court Judge declared a mistrial on Monday against four men who had allegedly turned against federal agents during the Bundy Ranch standoff in 2014.
U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro said the men would be retried on June 26.
Among the men accused of taking up arms against federal agents in the Bundy Ranch standoff, were two defendants that were convicted on multiple counts. The jury could not reach a unanimous verdict against the other four individuals.
The case on Monday was the first of three trials scheduled to be charged in the standoff.
For decades the BLM ordered Cliven Bundy to remove his cattle from federal lands and obtained a court order to seize his cattle in 2014 as a payment for more than $1 million unpaid grazing fees. The order resulted in a standoff between cattle ranchers, anti-government protesters and militia members against the Bureau of Land Management.
