WASHINGTON (AP) — The District of Columbia has agreed to pay $50,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a resident who accused police officers of illegally detaining him for following an Ohio National Guard patrol while playing Darth Vader’s theme song from “Star Wars” on his cellphone, according to a document released Monday.

The plaintiff, Sam O’Hara, sued the district, four Metropolitan Police Department officers and a guard member from Ohio over what he says was his act of protest against President Donald Trump’s federal law enforcement surge in Washington, D.C.

A court filing on Thursday disclosed the settlement but didn’t specify any monetary terms. The amount is included in a copy of the settlement agreement that D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb’s office provided to The Associated Press.

The $50,000 settlement includes attorney’s fees and costs. O’Hara is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia. In an email on Friday, an ACLU spokesperson referred to the settlement’s financial terms as “a significant amount” that O’Hara “is pleased with” but said they weren’t disclosing the dollar figure to protect his privacy.

O’Hara, an artist who works in the hospitality industry, agreed to drop his claims against the district and the MPD officers within three business days of receiving the settlement payment. The settlement isn’t an admission of wrongdoing by the district, the agreement says.

O’Hara’s settlement with the district doesn’t resolve his related claims against an Ohio National Guard member, Sgt. Devon Beck, who has asked a judge to dismiss O’Hara’s claims against him.

O’Hara sued the district in October, claiming police officers violated his First Amendment rights to free speech and his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable seizures and excessive force.

O’Hara played “The Imperial March” theme from “Star Wars” on his phone as he followed several National Guard troops down a public street on Sept. 11, 2025. One of the troops summoned police officers, who stopped O’Hara and kept him handcuffed for 15 to 20 minutes before releasing him without charges, according to the lawsuit.

Trump’s ongoing deployment of guard members in Washington began last August after the Republican president issued an executive order declaring a crime emergency in the nation’s capital. The surge inflamed tensions with residents of the heavily Democratic district. Hundreds of guard members remain deployed in the district nearly a year later, with no clear end in sight.

A judge has set an April 5 date to begin the retrial of disgraced ex-lawyer Alex Murdaugh on two counts of murder in the shooting deaths of his wife and son. The South Carolina Supreme Court overturned the murder convictions in May, ruling the court clerk at the trial “egregiously attacked Murdaugh’s credibility” by suggesting to jurors his testimony could not be trusted.

The once-prominent lawyer was known for his family lineage and million-dollar judgements in rural South Carolina. He worked for his family’s century-old law firm and his father, grandfather and great-grandfather were elected county prosecutors. Murdaugh, the subject of numerous documentaries and true crime podcasts, will remain imprisoned on federal convictions for stealing millions from clients.

Here is a look at the events leading up Murdaugh’s retrial:

June 7, 2021: Murdaugh calls police to report his wife Maggie, 52, and their son Paul, 22, have been fatally shot near dog kennels on their property.

Sept. 4, 2021: Alex Murdaugh attempts to arrange his own death in a plan to secure his surviving son a $10 million life insurance payment, officials say. The plot fails when the gunshot by a Murdaugh associate only grazes Murdaugh’s head.

Oct. 14, 2021: Police arrest Murdaugh at a drug rehab facility in Florida on charges he stole insurance settlements totaling more than $4 million intended for the sons of his late housekeeper.

Nov. 17, 2021: Prosecutors reveal 27 new charges against Murdaugh, saying he stole nearly $5 million in settlement money. Prosecutors allege Murdaugh was hiding money from lawyers who sued him over the death of a teenager killed when authorities say an intoxicated Paul Murdaugh wrecked the boat he was driving.

Jan. 18, 2022: Additional indictments mean Murdaugh now faces 71 charges that he stole nearly $8.5 million in wrongful death and wreck settlements from more than a dozen people.

May 4, 2022: Russell Laffitte, the former CEO of Palmetto State Bank before his firing earlier that year, is indicted on charges that he conspired with Murdaugh to defraud victims of $1.8 million.

June 28, 2022: Prosecutors outline an eight-year money laundering and painkiller ring in new indictments.

July 14, 2022: Murdaugh is charged with murder in the deaths of his wife and son. The indictments issued by the grand jury contend Murdaugh killed his wife with a rifle and his son with a shotgun.

Jan. 23, 2023: Murdaugh goes on trial for double-murder in the killings of his wife and son.

Feb. 23, 2023: Murdaugh denies killing them after taking the witness stand at his murder trial. But he admits lying to investigators about when he last saw them alive.

March 2, 2023: A jury convicts Murdaugh on two counts of murder after a six-week trial. The jury deliberated for less than three hours.

March 3, 2023: A judge sentences Murdaugh to life in prison.

Jan. 29, 2024: A South Carolina judge denies Murdaugh’s bid for a new trial after his defense team accused a clerk of court of tampering with a jury.

April 2, 2024: Murdaugh is sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for stealing from clients and his law firm.

Feb. 11, 2026: Murdaugh asks the South Carolina Supreme Court to throw out his murder convictions.

May 13, 2026: The South Carolina Supreme Court overturns Murdaugh’s murder convictions and life sentence. In a unanimous ruling, the justices said the conduct by the court clerk “egregiously attacked Murdaugh’s credibility” by suggesting to jurors his testimony could not be trusted.

June 29, 2026: Newly appointed Judge Debra McCaslin sets an April 5 date for the start of jury selection in Murdaugh’s retrial on the two murder charges as well as an August 14 date to hear pretrial motions. The defense has requested Murdaugh be allowed to wear regular clothes in court, not an orange prison jumpsuit and shackles. They also want to move the trial out of Colleton County, where the killings and the first trial took place.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A conservative law professor known for his expansive views of presidential power and for decades-old memos that justified harsh interrogation techniques after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks says he will be advising a team of prosecutors investigating whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against President Donald Trump.

John Yoo confirmed in an email to The Associated Press on Monday that he would be assisting Joe diGenova, the former Justice Department prosecutor who was assigned in April to investigate whether officials, who over the last decade scrutinized Trump, participated in a criminal conspiracy against the Republican president.

“He’s a lawyer. He’s going to be helping us,” diGenova said in a brief telephone interview about Yoo. He did not elaborate.

A law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Yoo was a senior Justice Department official in the George W. Bush administration who served as a lead author of the so-called “torture memos” that government officials used to justify using “enhanced interrogation” techniques on potential terror suspects. The Justice Department later rescinded the memos.

In the years since, he’s remained a prominent proponent of broad executive authority, telling the AP in a 2020 interview that he had told Trump administration officials multiple times that a Supreme Court ruling which rejected Trump’s effort to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, opened the door to enormous new presidential power.

The conspiracy investigation is being conducted in Florida, but the scope is unclear, as is whether any criminal charges will be brought.

Prosecutors have centered at least part of the probe on the long-concluded investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Investigators have issued a broad swath of subpoenas for records and conducted interviews related to the creation of an intelligence community assessment, released in January 2017, that found that Russia engaged in wide-ranging election interference to boost Trump over his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.

A 2019 report by special counsel Robert Mueller affirmed that Russia interfered on Trump’s behalf and that the Trump campaign repeatedly welcomed the assistance, but it did not find sufficient evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy between Moscow and the campaign.

Several subsequent investigations into the Russia probe have identified multiple errors into how it was conducted, and a former FBI lawyer pleaded guilty in 2020 to doctoring an email during the course of the inquiry. But none of the reviews have identified criminal misconduct by any senior law enforcement or intelligence official involved in the investigation.

Trump has nonetheless continued to demand retribution and has sought to punish top officials from that time at the FBI and CIA.

Asked in a Fox News Channel interview in May what the Justice Department had done to address claims of a long-running conspiracy to bring down Trump, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “That’s exactly what we’re investigating right now.”

Yoo’s involvement in the investigation was earlier reported by Politico and CNN.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court held Monday that constitutional privacy protections extend to cellphone location information, ruling in the case of a bank robber whose identity was discovered through a geofence warrant.

Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the 6-3 court that people don’t forfeit expectations of privacy even when they opt into Google’s location history.

“A cellphone user is not to be viewed as sharing private information with third parties—which then can be freely passed on to the government—just by doing the ordinary things cellphone users do,” Kagan wrote.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote in dissent that Okello Chatrie had no expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turned over to Google.

The decision is the court’s latest effort to apply a constitutional provision ratified in 1791 to technology the nation’s founders could not have envisioned.

Police obtained a geofence warrant after a bank robbery in a suburb of Richmond, Virginia, and used it to locate cellphones that were near the bank around the time it was robbed in May 2019.

One of those phones belonged to Chatrie, who had eluded the police until they turned to the powerful technological tool.

The warrant kick-started the investigation. After determining that Chatrie was among those near the Call Federal Credit Union in Midlothian at the time, police obtained a search warrant for his home. They found nearly $100,000 in cash, including bills wrapped in bands signed by the bank teller.

Chatrie pleaded guilty to robbing the bank and was sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison. His lawyers argued on appeal that none of the evidence should have been used against him.

They challenged the warrant as a violation of his privacy because it allowed authorities to gather the location history of people near the bank without having any evidence they had anything to do with the robbery. Prosecutors argued that Chatrie had no expectation of privacy because he voluntarily opted into Google’s location history.

The Supreme Court did not decide Monday whether the search complied with the Fourth Amendment, which bans unreasonable searches and seizures. It sent the case back to a lower court for more work.

A federal judge had ruled that the search violated Chatrie’s rights, but allowed the evidence to be used because the officer who applied for the warrant reasonably believed he was acting properly.

The federal appeals court in Richmond upheld the conviction in a fractured ruling. In a separate case, the federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled that geofence warrants “are general warrants categorically prohibited by the Fourth Amendment.”

WINDSOR, N.C. (AP) — Inmates seized control of parts of a regional jail in eastern North Carolina on Monday after overpowering correctional staff, authorities said.

Three guards and 88 inmates were inside the Bertie-Martin Regional Detention Center in Windsor when the takeover began at about 5 a.m., prompting an immediate response from local, state and federal authorities, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation said in a statement posted on social media.

There was no immediate threat to the general public, Bertie County Sheriff Tyrone Ruffin said in the statement. Windsor is about 120 miles (190 kilometers) east of Raleigh.

Inmates took two guards captive and the third guard escaped. Negotiations led to the release of the two guards along with 80 inmates, leaving only eight inmates inside, Ruffin said later at a news conference. By early afternoon, the Bureau of Investigation had entered the facility and was working to take the remaining inmates into custody, Ruffin said.

Ruffin said without elaborating that the inmates who were released were taken to a “secure place.” He said the two guards who were released are undergoing medical treatment but he had no details about their injuries.

Authorities also did not address why there were only three guards overseeing the entire jail population at the time.

A secure perimeter was established around the detention center and the public was asked to avoid the immediate area, Ruffin said. More than 20 law enforcement agencies responded to the scene.

Ruffin did not indicate what caused the takeover.

“Right now we have a lot going on that we’re trying to get under control,” he said. “I will release that information to the public as soon as I can.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Summer camp and other outdoor activities were canceled or delayed Monday as a heat wave held its grip on the Midwest and spread eastward. Communities opened cooling centers and urged people to take it easy and stay hydrated.

“Overall, we’re looking at just a really hot and humid pattern. It’s going to be with us through most of the week,” Andrew Ansorge, a meteorologist in Des Moines, Iowa, said of the first prolonged period of heat this summer.

Much of Iowa and big chunks of the Midwest were under an extreme heat warning through at least Tuesday. Temperatures were forecast to reach the 90s, with heat index values, or “feels-like” temperatures, expected to top 100 degrees (37.8 degrees Celsius) in the region, Ansorge said.

Visiting Des Moines with family, Rachel Washburn searched for things to do with kids during a heat wave. They landed at a water sprayground before lunch, where her children played tag in the cool water to escape a heat index forecast to reach 109 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius).

“My kids were quite shocked at the heat and humidity,” said Washburn of her seven children ages 18 months to 17 who are used to more temperate weather in Bemidji, Minnesota. “We were hoping for some good weather, but we’ll make do.”

Some of the worst conditions are expected by Thursday and Friday as the heat moves through the Ohio Valley, the Mid-Atlantic and into the Northeast, with the potential for some record-high temperatures, said Scott Kleebauer, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

On Monday morning, Tom and Cindy Youngblood walked around an outdoor sculpture park in Des Moines, enjoying brief moments of shade and a helpful breeze. The couple, both 67 and from Rogers, Arkansas, returned from a camping trip in Wisconsin and chose a hotel over their camper van Sunday.

“We did not want to camp last night because we knew it would be too hot,” Cindy Youngblood said.

Kleebauer said one of the center’s biggest recommendations is to stay hydrated and have access shady areas and air conditioning.

“It just so happens to be coinciding with a time frame where a lot of people are away and a lot of people are going away for vacation” during the Fourth of July holiday week, he said.

Extreme heat has also taken its toll in Europe, where temperature records were set and many heat-related deaths were reported in France.

People can be caught off guard by the first heat wave of the year, said Dr. Roy Elrod, chief of staff at DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital.

“You’re happy winter’s gone, you’re ready to enjoy the summer, you’ve just been aching for it,” Elrod said. “And so, I think we slip into kind of a position where we think it’s got to be OK.”

But heat-related injuries can happen in a matter of minutes, especially to those who don’t prepare for the weather by hydrating, wearing light clothing, avoiding the hottest times of the day and minimizing exposure to the sun, he said.

“We’re just not always prepared for it and it just takes an incident that rattles you and shakes you up that you understand that it can get serious very quick,” he said.

In the Midwest, some camp programs on Monday rearranged their schedules. Other outdoor activities, like a farmers market in Michigan and a drive-in theater in Minnesota, were canceled on Monday because of the heat.

In Flint, Michigan, the city activated four cooling centers through Wednesday, with the potential to extend operations if the heat persists.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison said it was closing 23 buildings to the public starting Tuesday, allowing only limited access to 11 others. It was relocating some summer classes after a broken water line at its cooling plant earlier this month severely reduced the ability to provide air conditioning across campus.

—

McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press reporters Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, and Haya Panjwani in Washington, D.C., contributed.

BEAVER, Utah (AP) — The three firefighters killed over the weekend in wildfires along the Colorado-Utah border were part of a crew that goes into remote areas to quickly put out new fires, federal officials said Monday.

The three were killed and two others suffered burns when they were overcome Saturday by flames after deploying emergency shelters to shield themselves from fast-moving fires.

Wildfires have erupted over the past week across the West, fueled by months of dry weather and a record lack of snow this past winter in some places. Wildfire experts have been warning for months that extreme fire dangers are likely this summer.

With more than two dozen large fires burning across the U.S., almost 8,000 wildland firefighters and dozens of firefighting helicopters have been deployed. About half of the largest blazes are in Alaska while the rest are mostly in Western states.

So far this year, wildfires have burned more than 4,600 square miles (11,900 square kilometers) — the most since 2022.

The U.S. Forest Service identified the firefighters killed as Emily Barker, 38, of Clinton Township, Michigan; Nick Hutcherson, 27 of Glendale, Arizona; and Sydney Watson, 26, of Warrior, Alabama.

They were assigned to a Helitack crew that can be dropped into remote areas by helicopters and whose mission is to prevent new fires from growing into out-of-control blazes. But it can be extremely dangerous, often taking place in areas where fires are rapidly expanding.

The weekend deaths came almost exactly 13 years after a crew of 19 wildland firefighters were killed when they were trapped in a brush-choked box canyon near Yarnell, Arizona.

Like Saturday’s victims, the men killed in Arizona in June 2013 were members of a specialized firefighting crew who had tried to deploy emergency shelters meant to shield them from flames and heat.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal law enforcement authorities are preparing for one of Washington, D.C.’s, largest and most complex security operations as the nation’s capital gears up to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the nation’s freedom.

With rising political violence, including recent incidents near the White House, and a president who enjoys being at the center of public pomp yet has repeatedly faced attempts on his life, a major security challenge awaits.

“It comes as no surprise to you that D.C. on a normal day is a target-rich environment,” said Darren B. Cox assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office at a recent press conference detailing the security preparations. “We are prepared for any threats.”

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to visit Washington in the coming weeks for the festivities.

The throngs will be joined by thousands of law enforcement officers and agents and 5,000 National Guard troops, along with military-style vehicles and other hardware they don’t often see on the streets of America.

The largest crowds are expected July 4, with multiple events happening simultaneously, including the Great American State Fair, a showcase for each state and a signature attraction of the celebrations that stretches across the National Mall.

The annual fireworks display that night is designated a National Security Special Event for the first time by the Department of Homeland Security, granting it the highest classification for federal security coordination.

For visitors, that means strict ID requirements, long lines and magnetometers, similar to air travel security. Snipers are also expected to be deployed at some events.

Flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which is across the Potomac River from Washington, will be suspended longer than in other years because of the scope of the celebrations — from noon on July 4 until the next day. Other America 250 events that include flyovers or parachute jumps could prompt more flight disruptions.

The FBI, Secret Service, U.S. Capitol Police, U.S. Park Police and D.C. National Guard have all been involved in security coordination for the events. At the press conference earlier this month, equipment that could be deployed to guard the city was on display, including BearCat armored SWAT vehicles, Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected, known as MRAPs, as well as communication vans and FBI diving boats.

“Our protective model is meant to adjust to any type of direct or indirect threats that we come across,” said Tara McLeese, special agent in charge of the Secret Service Washington Field Office. “I can assure you that we have no lack of imagination as to the potential threats out there.”

Brig. Gen. Leland Blanchard II, interim commander of the D.C. National Guard, said the planning had been underway for months and included rehearsals.

Blanchard said the guard members would continue the roles they have served the last 10 months as part of a deployment to the city President Donald Trump says is meant to fight crime. Blanchard highlighted that guard members, including military police officers, would be helping with duties like traffic and crowd control as well as responding to emergencies around the events.

President Trump, who has already attended several events leading up to July 4, including the kickoff rally last week launching the Great American State Fair, has said on Truth Social that he would hold a rally on the National Mall.

Speaking at a press conference Monday updating the upcoming security preparations, Cox reiterated that “at this time we are not tracking any credible threats related to the July 4th event, but we always remain vigilant.”

The festivities come at a fraught moment, with recent political violence creating a complex threat environment for authorities. One man, Cole Tomas Allen, has been charged with attempting to assassinate the president after he sprinted past security at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in April. Allen has pleaded not guilty.

In the following weeks, two men on two separate occasions opened fired at Secret Service officers, the service said. Each incident happened in the vicinity of the White House.

More recently, the FBI announced it had thwarted a planned attack targeting Trump’s UFC cage-fighting show at the White House. Several suspects have been arrested in that case.

Security was already enhanced on the National Mall ahead of the launch of festivities, as Trump claimed without providing evidence that vandals had damaged the Reflecting Pool that he had recently renovated.

Matt Dallek, a political scientist at George Washington University who studies extremism, said Trump posed a unique security challenge because he is “both an accelerant and a target of political violence.”

Observers draw some parallels to the 1976 bicentennial. The nation was coming off Watergate and Vietnam and 10 months before the celebration there were two assassination attempts against then-President Gerald Ford.

“There was a lot of sourness in the country in ’76, a lot of cynicism about the direction of the country,” Dallek said. But both Ford and his democratic opponent Jimmy Carter understood the threat political divisions posed and “were looking to bring down the level of vitriol.”

Angelyn Spaulding Flowers, Professor of Homeland Security & Administration of Justice at the University of the District of Columbia, said the amount of security was unparalleled for the city, citing the ongoing and open-ended National Guard presence that has flooded Washington with additional security patrols for months.

By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK, June 29 (Reuters) – Former National Basketball Association players Malik Beasley and Ed Davis have been indicted on gambling-related charges, U.S. prosecutors said on Monday, joining other professional athletes charged with rigging bets on player performance.

• The charges followed a string of cases that have raised concerns about the integrity of sports, amid an explosion of legalized sports betting in the U.S.

• Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said that prior to three separate games in 2024, Beasley told Davis that he intended to overperform or underperform in certain statistical categories such as points or rebounding in exchange for the promise of a bribe.

• Davis then told several co-conspirators of Beasley’s plans, to allow them to place hundreds of thousands of dollars in wagers, many of which were successful, prosecutors said. The co-conspirators were also charged.

• Beasley played for the Milwaukee Bucks at the time. He had earned tens of millions of dollars since starting in the NBA in 2016, but had also accumulated multimillion-dollar gambling losses, prosecutors said.

• Steven Haney, a lawyer for Beasley, said in a statement, “Malik maintains his presumption of innocence throughout this two-year investigation. We ask that people reserve judgment until all the facts are known.”

• Lawyers for Davis did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

• Neither the NBA nor the Bucks immediately responded to requests for comment.

• Beasley and Davis were teammates on the Minnesota Timberwolves during the 2020-2021 season and maintained a close relationship, prosecutors said.

• Both will be arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn. No date has been set.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

By Ian Ransom

SANTA CLARA, California, June 29 (Reuters) – A shooting in San Jose, California, that killed one person and injured another late on Sunday adjacent to a site used for World Cup watch parties was not related to the tournament, the city’s Mayor Matt Mahan said in a statement.

There were no World Cup games being screened at the San Pedro Square fan zone at the time of the shooting which police responded around 9:12 p.m. local time.

“This shooting happened near an area where families and fans have been gathering for our World Cup watch parties, and that makes the brazenness of this crime even more unacceptable,” Mahan said in a statement on Monday.

“I am grateful that Sunday’s programming had ended hours earlier, and there is no indication this violence was connected to the event.

“San Jose has safely welcomed hundreds of thousands of people downtown, and we are not going to let one criminal act scare our community away from public spaces that belong to them.”

Police said on Monday they responded to a report of the shooting in the area of North Market Street and West Santa Clara Street, in San Jose, and were investigating the incident as a homicide.

RAMEN RESTAURANT

Staff at a ramen restaurant about a block away from the fan zone confirmed to Reuters on Monday that a victim of the shooting had died metres from their door.

The other shooting victim ran through a car park and collapsed in the fan-zone outside bars where he was attended to by medics, a bar-tender who witnessed the scene told Reuters on Monday.

Security staff and police cleared San Pedro Square after the shooting and cordoned off the fan-zone.

On Monday morning, over 100 fans were watching the World Cup last-32 match between Japan and Brazil.

San Jose Police Department said in a statement they located an unconscious adult male victim lying on the sidewalk suffering from at least one gunshot wound.

“Officers immediately began life-saving measures and summoned medical personnel to the scene where they ultimately pronounced the victim deceased,” the statement said.

Polices said they located a second adult male shooting victim several yards away.

“Responding medical personnel transported the victim to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries where he has since been stabilised. He remains in critical condition but is expected to survive,” the statement said.

There are several dozen fan zones across the Bay Area.

(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Ed Osmond)