NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Craig to undergo minor ankle surgery for Bond injury

LOS ANGELES

James Bond is out of commission for a few weeks. Star Daniel Craig is undergoing minor ankle surgery after sustaining an injury while filming the 25th installment in the franchise in Jamaica.

The news came Wednesday in a tweet from the official James Bond twitter account. The statement says that production will continue during the 51-year-old actor’s two-week post-surgery rehabilitation and that the film will stay on track to hit its April 2020 release date.

This is Craig’s fifth outing as 007.

Hank Williams Jr. offering reward for grandfather’s shotgun

CULLMAN, Ala.

Country music star Hank Williams Jr. is offering a $6,000 reward for his grandfather’s missing shotgun.

The singer known for hits including “Family Tradition” has posted a letter online saying he spent time growing up in south Alabama with his grandfather.

The letter says he can’t locate the man’s old Remington Model 11-48 shotgun, which he wants to pass on.

An attorney for Williams, Steve Smith, says the gun is believed to be lost, not stolen. The reward is being offered with no questions asked.

Smith says the 16-gauge shotgun was likely last seen at a lake cabin or house near Cullman, Ala. He says the reward offer has generated a few tips.

Williams sang about the man who owned the shotgun in his 1973 song “Grandpa Shepherd.”

District attorney says Meek Mill should get new trial, judge

PHILADELPHIA

Philadelphia’s top prosecutor called for a new trial and judge for rapper Meek Mill on Wednesday, saying the former judge who sentenced him “abused its discretion” and has been biased against him.

District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office filed a brief questioning Common Pleas Court Judge Genece Brinkley’s “impartiality,” citing her decision to check in on Mill at a homeless shelter where he was doing community service and later criticizing him for not doing more.

Krasner said she improperly referred to her own observations at his sentencing hearing.

“Judge Brinkley personally assumed the role of investigator,” the brief says.

Mill, whose real name is Robert Rihmeek Williams, became a symbol for criminal justice reform activists after Brinkley sentenced him to two to four years in prison for minor violations of his probation conditions in a decade-old gun and drug-possession case in November 2017.

Associated Press