Southwest
Houston police chief replaced amid investigation into hundreds of thousands of dropped cases
Houston’s mayor has replaced the city’s police chief, saying Wednesday it was the best thing for a law enforcement agency that’s still under intense scrutiny over why hundreds of thousands of cases were never investigated, including more than 4,000 sexual assault allegations.
Mayor John Whitmire said he did not push out former Police Chief Troy Finner but accepted his retirement as the police department needed to move forward under new leadership.
During a news conference, Whitmire said the ongoing investigation and questions of what Finner knew and when were having a cumulative impact “on the morale in the department, the focus of the officers and the confidence that Houstonians need to have in their police department.”
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Whitmire, who took office in January, had expressed confidence in Finner after the chief revealed in February that more than 264,000 incident reports in the past eight years were never submitted for investigation as officers assigned them an internal code that cited a lack of available personnel.
Finner had said he ordered his command staff in a November 2021 meeting to stop using it after learning of its existence. Despite this, he said, he learned on Feb. 7 of this year that it was still being used to dismiss a significant number of adult sexual assault cases.
Whitmire’s confidence in Finner seemed to quickly end this week after Houston television stations reported Tuesday that Finner had been informed about the dismissed incident reports in a 2018 email.
Whitmire called the discovery of the email the “final straw.”
“The bottom line is the department is being distracted due to issues with the investigation … from its primary mission of fighting crime,” Whitmire told city council members. He appointed assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite as acting chief.
In a late Wednesday afternoon post on the social platform X, Finner did not address his sudden retirement. He called the last few months of his career “the most challenging” and “painful” because “some victims of violent crime did not receive the quality care and service they deserved.”
“But, it was beneficial because we implemented measures to ensure this never happens again,” Finner said on the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Our department and our profession will be better because of it.”
During a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Satterwhite was asked by reporters about when he first learned that cases were being dismissed because of a lack of personnel.
Satterwhite, who has been with the police department for 34 years, said he briefly attended the November 2021 meeting where Finner told his command staff to stop using the code but left as he was focused on other duties. Satterwhite said that sometime in late 2023 or earlier this year, he might have heard something about the code related to a specific case but it wasn’t until later that he learned of the magnitude of the problem.
“We as an agency … on this one failed,” Satterwhite said.
Satterwhite said becoming acting chief has been difficult under these circumstances as he and Finner are longtime friends and attended the police academy together.
“I’m going to do my best to make it better and then we shall see,” Satterwhite said.
Finner had apologized in March about the use of the internal code to dismiss the incident reports and had said he would be transparent and truthful in the ongoing investigation.
Regarding the 2018 email made public this week, Finner posted a statement on X saying he did not remember that email until he was shown a copy of it on Tuesday.
“Even though the phrase ‘suspended lack of personnel’ was included in the 2018 email, there was nothing that alerted me to its existence as a code or how it was applied within the department,” Finner wrote.
Several city council members on Wednesday expressed gratitude for Finner, who joined the Houston police department in 1990 and became chief in 2021. City Councilor Carolyn Evans-Shabazz said she misses him already.
“His efforts have significantly contributed to our community’s safety and wellbeing,” Evans-Shabazz said.
After Finner made public the department’s use of the internal code to dismiss these cases, Whitmire launched a review by an independent panel. Whitmire said he hoped the panel could provide a public update next week.
The Houston Area Women’s Center, Houston’s largest non-profit supporting victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, declined to comment Wednesday on Finner’s retirement. But in a social media post in February, it said sexual assault survivors “pay a high price” when investigations aren’t clearly resolved.
Police departments around the country are facing an urgent staffing crisis as many younger officers resign and older officers retire, according to an August report by the Police Executive Research Forum. Applications to fill vacancies plummeted amid a national reckoning over how police respond to minorities.
An April 27 report by the same Washington-based think tank found more encouraging numbers.
“Small and medium agencies now have more sworn officers than they had in January 2020,” according to the forum’s report. “In large agencies, sworn staffing slightly increased during 2023, but it is still more than 5% below where it was in January 2020.”
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Southwest
NRA and conservative legal group sue Democrat governor over 7-day waiting period to buy guns
FIRST ON FOX — A conservative legal group and gun rights activists have teamed up to challenge a newly enacted seven-day waiting period to buy a gun in New Mexico.
The Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF) has partnered with the National Rifle Association (NRA) in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that claims New Mexico is denying citizens their Second Amendment rights and their natural right to self-defense. The groups allege in court documents that the waiting period law passed by the Democratic-controlled legislature and signed by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is unconstitutional.
“This arbitrary law is just the latest attempt by Governor Grisham and her anti-gun comrades in the New Mexico legislature to limit the Second Amendment rights of their law-abiding constituents,” said Mike McCoy, director of the Center to Keep and Bear Arms at MSLF.
The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico names Grisham and New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez (D) as defendants.
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Grisham signed House Bill 129 into law in March, and it went into effect on Wednesday, enacting a mandatory seven-day waiting period for the purchase of firearms. During this time, sellers are required to conduct a federal instant background check of the buyer. Should the background check take longer than seven days, the seller must wait to transfer the firearm to the purchaser until the background check is completed.
Violators would be found guilty of a misdemeanor, according to the New Mexico Department of Public Safety.
READ THE LAWSUIT BELOW. APP USERS: CLICK HERE
“This legislation strikes at the heart of issues that are keeping New Mexicans up at night,” Grisham said in a statement after signing the bill. “We are losing far too many lives when guns get into the wrong hands and violent criminals are allowed to recommit again and again. This legislation addresses both.”
In court documents, plaintiffs Paul Samuel Ortega and Rebecca Scott, both residents of New Mexico, assert the Waiting Period Act “burdens the right to keep and bear arms.” Plaintiffs also claim the state government “could never meet its burden to establish a historical analogue to justify its regulation.”
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The lawsuit references the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, which established a new standard to determine whether a gun restriction is unconstitutional. To meet that standard, the government must show there is a “historical tradition of firearm regulation” that supports the sort of law in question.
Since Bruen, a multitude of federal and state gun control measures have been challenged in courts with mixed results.
“The Second Amendment protects a private right of individuals to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense; but this ridiculous waiting period law delays the ability of law-abiding citizens to exercise this God-given right,” McCoy told Fox News Digital.
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“Forcing domestic violence victims in need of a firearm to protect themselves to wait seven days to acquire one is wrong, and let’s hope their abusers ‘wait a week’ too before they attack again,” he added.
“The NRA is proud to team up with the Mountain States Legal Foundation to challenge New Mexico’s waiting period law,” said Randy Kozuch, Executive Director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action. “This new law is a clear violation of the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding New Mexicans, and the NRA is committed to seeing that this unconstitutional law be wiped from the state statutes.”
The MSLF stated that plaintiffs “seek nothing short of a complete invalidation of the law by the federal courts, and a return to constitutional sensibility.”
The offices of the governor and the attorney general did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Los Angeles, Ca
Skeletal remains found in San Bernardino Co. determined to be human
A death investigation is underway after human remains were found on a property in San Bernardino County over the weekend.
The discovery of skeletal remains was reported just before 11:30 a.m. Sunday in the 11400 block of San Timoteo Canyon Road in Loma Linda.
“The remains were determined to be human,” the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department stated in a news release Monday.
The Sheriff’s Department’s Specialized Investigations Division took over the investigation and recovered the remains, which included various bones.
The remains will “undergo an examination and autopsy to determine the identity of the deceased as well as the cause of death,” the Sheriff’s Department said.
The age and gender of the deceased were also unknown.
The area of San Timoteo Canyon Road where officials said the remains were found hosts a mix of businesses, residences and a large open field.
Anyone with information was asked to call Detective Michael Roth at 909-890-4904. Callers can remain anonymous by contacting We-Tip at 800-78CRIME or www.wetip.com.
Southwest
Paralyzed cat in Texas up for adoption seeks 'her person' for cuddles and care
A 3-year-old Turkish Angora cat with some special needs is seeking a special person or persons to take her into their home for a lifetime of cuddles and cozy cat naps.
At her young age, the cat named Shrimp has proven herself to be a survivor. She sustained a spinal cord injury in Dec. 2022 after she fell down three stories, Madison Ohler, founder of Wonky Whiskers Rescue, told Fox News Digital.
Wonky Whiskers Rescue is a central Texas-based nonprofit that focuses on rescuing cats with serious injuries, disabilities and illness.
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“She underwent an extensive amount of testing and therapy, but Shrimp never regained function of her back legs,” Ohler said.
The cat sometimes uses a wheelchair, but she is also capable of “scooting” (and even climbing) around on her own.
Her past owner surrendered her to Wonky Whiskers Rescue in June 2023, said Ohler. The rescue is hoping the cat will find her forever home before she reaches her one-year mark at the rescue.
And despite her extremely traumatic injury, “Shrimp is happy and healthy” — and only requires a little more care than a typical cat.
“She requires her bladder to be expressed three times a day,” said Ohler, which she said is a “simple process and takes only a couple of minutes.”
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Other than that, Shrimp is a fairly normal cat, with soft fur and a penchant for snuggling and lounging, the rescue said.
She is also on the petite side, weighing just eight pounds.
She “loves Churu treats, cozy beds and getting endless cuddles from her person,” said Ohler, describing her as a “cuddle bug.”
Cats with paralysis and other special needs may seem intimidating to many potential adopters, she noted.
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“I think it is important for people who have not had experience with paralyzed cats to be open to adopting them,” said Ohler.
But she said she believes that “once a routine is established, it is quick and easy.”
“Paralyzed cats surprise us with how resilient and capable they are. The bond a paralyzed cat has with their person is extraordinary,” she said.
“It is incredibly rewarding to be a part of their journey.”
Anyone looking to bring a cuddly little Shrimp into their home should contact Wonky Whiskers Rescue, either on Facebook or on the group’s website.
Shrimp is up-to-date on her shots and other medical care, and her adoption fee is waived, said Ohler.
But due to her needs, Wonky Whiskers Rescue does require that Shrimp’s adopter meet her beforehand to receive instructions on her care.
For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle.
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