LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

9/11 CHARITY HELPING SLAIN OFFICERS’ FAMILIES

A charity created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks says it has so far raised $250,000, or about a third of what it needs, to pay off the home mortgages for the families of the two slain New York City police officers.

The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation announced Sunday that contributions poured in from as far away as Hawaii, Italy and the United Kingdom.

The foundation described its plan to raise money for the mortgages at a news conference Friday. It said it hopes to raise the $800,000 needed to buy the homes for the families of Ramos and Officer Wenjian Liu by New Year’s Day.

The foundation was created in memory of a firefighter who died on 9/11.

FERGUSON POLICE SPOKESMAN SUSPENDED

The Ferguson Police Department suspended a spokesman after he referred to a Brown memorial as “a pile of trash.”

A statement the city provided to The Associated Press on Sunday didn’t identify the officer who made the remark to a newspaper. The Washington Post attributed the comment to Officer Tim Zoll.

The memorial at the site of Brown’s death was damaged last week after a car apparently hit it.

Zoll doesn’t have a listed number and couldn’t be reached by the AP.

The city says the spokesman denied making the comment to his supervisors but later admitted that he’d misled his bosses.

City officials said negative remarks about the memorial “do not reflect the feelings of the Ferguson Police Department.”

Source: Associated Press