Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Warren’s DNA claim inflames some Native Americans
OKLAHOMA CITY
The DNA test that Sen. Elizabeth Warren used to try to rebut the ridicule of President Donald Trump angered some Native Americans, who complained that the genetic analysis cheapens the identities of tribal members with deeper ties to the Indian past.
Warren was born in Oklahoma, which is home to 39 tribes and where more than 7 percent of the population identifies as Native American, one of the highest proportions in the nation.
But she’s not a member of any tribe, and many Indians take exception to anyone who claims to be part Indian without being enrolled in a tribe, especially for political purposes.
“It adds fuel to that misconception that I can go out, get a DNA test and then, boom, that’s all I really need,” said Brandon Scott, a Cherokee Nation citizen and the executive editor of tribe’s newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix. “But the facts of the matter are you need a lot more than that.”
NY Uber driver charged with kidnapping woman
NEW YORK
An Uber driver in New York City kidnapped a woman who fell asleep in his vehicle, groped her in the back seat and then left her on the side of a highway in Connecticut, federal authorities said Tuesday.
Harbir Parmar, 24, of Queens, was charged in U.S. District Court
The FBI said in court papers that Parmar picked the woman up in Manhattan at 11:30 p.m. Feb. 21 for a trip to her home in White Plains, N.Y., about an hour away. The woman fell asleep, authorities said, and Parmar changed her destination to an address in Boston.
The woman later learned that Uber had charged her more than $1,000 for a trip from New York to Massachusetts. Uber said that amount was later refunded.
Ohio Man pleads guilty to 4 slayings, sentenced to 30 years
CLEVELAND
An Ohio man labeled a serial killer by a prosecutor has pleaded guilty to charges in four slayings and will spend at least 30 years in prison.
Cleveland.com reports 48-year-old Robert Rembert Jr., of Bedford, pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of aggravated murder and two counts of voluntary manslaughter in a Cleveland courtroom. He was sentenced Tuesday.
One of Rembert’s attorneys called it a “difficult case” he’s glad is resolved. Rembert apologized before sentencing.
Authorities say Rembert raped and strangled Rita Mae Payne in 1997 and Kimberly Hall in 2015, and fatally shot his cousin, Jerry Rembert, and family friend Morgan Nietzel in 2015. He served six years in prison for killing Dadren Lewis in 1997.
Millions spent to guard Confederate cemeteries
ALTON, Ill.
After last year’s deadly clash between white nationalists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Va., the federal government quietly spent millions of dollars to hire private security guards to stand watch over at least eight Confederate cemeteries.
That’s according to documents from the Department of Veterans Affairs reviewed by The Associated Press.
The security runs around the clock at all but one of those VA-operated cemeteries. The effort is aimed at preventing the kind of damage that befell Confederate memorials across the U.S. in the aftermath of the Charlottesville violence.
Records show that the VA has spent nearly $3 million on the cemetery security since August 2017.
Associated Press