NATIONAL NEWS

The police chief who led a raid of a small Kansas newspaper has been suspended

Sep 30, 2023, 1:30 PM

The police chief who led a highly criticized raid of a small Kansas newspaper has been suspended, the mayor confirmed to The Associated Press on Saturday.

Marion Mayor Dave Mayfield in a text said he suspended Chief Gideon Cody on Thursday. He declined to discuss his decision further and did not say whether Cody was still being paid.

Voice messages and emails from the AP seeking comment from Cody’s lawyers were not immediately returned Saturday.

The Aug. 11 searches of the Marion County Record’s office and the homes of its publisher and a City Council member have been sharply criticized, putting Marion at the center of a debate over the press protections offered by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Cody’s suspension is a reversal for the mayor, who previously said he would wait for results from a state police investigation before taking action.

Vice-Mayor Ruth Herbel, whose home was also raided Aug. 11, praised Cody’s suspension as “the best thing that can happen to Marion right now” as the central Kansas town of about 1,900 people struggles to move forward under the national spotlight.

“We can’t duck our heads until it goes away, because it’s not going to go away until we do something about it,” Herbel said.

Cody has said little publicly since the raids other than posting a defense of them on the police department’s Facebook page. In court documents he filed to get the search warrants, he argued that he had probable cause to believe the newspaper and Herbel, whose home was also raided, had violated state laws against identity theft or computer crimes.

The raids came after a local restaurant owner accused the newspaper of illegally accessing information about her. A spokesman for the agency that maintains those records has said the newspaper’s online search that a reporter did was likely legal even though the reporter needed personal information about the restaurant owner that a tipster provided to look up her driving record.

The newspaper’s publisher Eric Meyer has said the identity theft allegations simply provided a convenient excuse for the search after his reporters had been digging for background information on Cody, who was appointed this summer.

Legal experts believe the raid on the newspaper violated a federal privacy law or a state law shielding journalists from having to identify sources or turn over unpublished material to law enforcement.

Video of the raid on the home of publisher Eric Meyer shows how distraught his 98-year-old mother became as officers searched through their belongings. Meyer said he believes that stress contributed to the death of his mother, Joan Meyer, a day later.

Another reporter last month filed a federal lawsuit against the police chief over the raid.

National News

Associated Press

A woman fired a gun after crashing her car and was fatally shot by police

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Police fatally shot a woman who was firing a gun and threatening officers with the weapon following a vehicle crash, authorities said. The woman was a suspect in an earlier shooting, said police Capt. Valerie Littlejohn. Seven officers who arrived at the scene of the crash tried to make contact […]

2 hours ago

Associated Press

1 person killed and at least 12 wounded in shooting at Oklahoma City party

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A shooting at a party held at an Oklahoma event center left one person dead and wounded 12 others, police said. A disturbance led to multiple shots being fired inside and outside the private venue in southwest Oklahoma City around 12:30 a.m. Saturday, Capt. Valerie Littlejohn of the Oklahoma City Police […]

3 hours ago

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Grand S...

Associated Press

Why is Donald Trump campaigning in California, a state he’s almost certain to lose?

LOS ANGELES (AP) — With the presidency on the line in battlegrounds like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, why would Donald Trump venture into California, one of the most solidly Democratic states, just weeks before Election Day? Trump is almost certain to lose California, and that won’t change after his scheduled Saturday stop in Coachella, a desert […]

4 hours ago

FILE - OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attends an Apple event announcing new products in Cupertino, Calif., J...

Associated Press

Changing OpenAI’s nonprofit structure would raise questions about its future

NEW YORK (AP) — The artificial intelligence maker OpenAI may face a costly and inconvenient reckoning with its nonprofit origins even as its valuation recently exploded to $157 billion. Nonprofit tax experts have been closely watching OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, since last November when its board ousted and rehired CEO Sam Altman. Now, some […]

4 hours ago

FILE - The OpenAI logo appears on a mobile phone in front of a computer screen with random binary d...

Associated Press

Documents show OpenAI’s long journey from nonprofit to $157B valued company

Back in 2016, a scientific research organization incorporated in Delaware and based in Mountain View, California, applied to be recognized as a tax-exempt charitable organization by the Internal Revenue Services. Called OpenAI, the nonprofit told the IRS its goal was to “advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as […]

4 hours ago

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris waves as she boards Air Force Two, Fri...

Associated Press

Harris is releasing a report on her health and poking Trump for failing to do likewise

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris plans to release a report Saturday on her medical history and health that a senior campaign aide said would show “she possesses the physical and mental resiliency” needed to serve as president. Harris’ advisers hope to use the moment to draw a contrast with Republican Donald Trump, who […]

7 hours ago

The police chief who led a raid of a small Kansas newspaper has been suspended