WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has tapped a senior Navy officer that he considered last year to be his Veterans Affairs secretary for promotion to two-star admiral and to be his chief medical adviser, even though there is still an open Pentagon investigation against him into allegations that derailed his VA secretary nomination.
The White House sent Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson’s name for promotion consideration to the Senate on Jan. 15. He was serving as the president’s doctor last April when Trump nominated him for the VA post, and withdrew from consideration after accusations of mismanagement and misconduct as White House physician emerged.
A spokesman for the Defense Department Inspector General’s Office, Bruce Anderson, said his office’s investigation into Jackson is still ongoing. The office, considered the Pentagon’s top watchdog, said in June that it had opened a case against Jackson, though it would not comment on the scope of it.
The parents of Tim Piazza, who died after an alcohol-fueled fraternity pledge party at Pennsylvania State University two years ago, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against 28 former members of the fraternity, but settled with Penn State without filing a lawsuit, their lawyer said.
Neither the university nor Jim and Evelyn Piazza and their lawyer, Thomas R. Kline, would disclose the terms of the financial settlement with Penn State.
They previously settled with the fraternity, Beta Theta Pi.
As with the Beta Theta Pi agreement, the settlement with Penn State also includes a number of non-monetary terms aimed at making the school safer for other students.
In February 2017, Piazza, a sophomore engineering major from New Jersey, drank copious amounts of alcohol at a pledge party as part of a hazing ritual and later fell down a flight of stairs. No one called for help for nearly 12 hours, and Piazza later died.
ORLANDO, Fla. — An officer from the Transportation Security Administration jumped to his death from a balcony inside Florida’s busiest airport Saturday, creating panic that brought some security checkpoints to a halt for hours and caused serious delays.
Panicked passengers rushed past checkpoints leading to about half of the gates at Orlando International Airport after the man jumped, resulting in checkpoint closures for up to three hours and some flight cancellations.
The TSA officer in his 40s died from an apparent suicide, according to the Orlando Police Department, which described it as an isolated incident.
A federal magistrate judge last week recommended that a ban on conversion therapy in Tampa, be partially blocked, arguing it violates therapists’ free-speech rights under the First Amendment.
A pair of licensed marriage and family therapists, along with a Christian ministry organization, sued the city of Tampa over an ordinance adopted in April 2017 that barred mental health professionals from subjecting minors to conversion therapy, a highly controversial practice that attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
The therapists, represented by conservative Christian legal advocacy group Liberty Counsel, argued the ordinance was unconstitutional because it prohibited them from taking part in “speech” through their counseling, simply because city officials disagree with the content of that speech.
Amanda Arnold Sansone, a U.S. magistrate judge in Tampa, argued in an opinion Wednesday that the plaintiffs, Robert Vazzo, David Pickup and the New Hearts Outreach, sufficiently demonstrated a likelihood of success with their arguments that the ordinance violates their free-speech rights.
The judge also said the city presented no evidence of minors being harmed by conversion therapy counseling within city limits.
For David Stephen Young, a round of six alcoholic beverages he drank before his flight from Calgary to London prompted a rash of unruly behavior, culminating in an abrupt turnaround, an arrest and a hefty fine of more than $16,000.
Young, 44, was ordered by a judge to pay WestJet for 20,000 tons of wasted fuel the pilot dumped over Alberta to safely land the aircraft back in Calgary on Jan. 4.
The fine came after he pleaded guilty last week to resisting arrest and failing to comply with safety instructions during the fight, according to USA Today.
Young, a British national, tried to access the restroom during takeoff and became belligerent with the flight crew and a passenger, the paper said, citing court documents.
Passengers and the crew “were left shaken and threatened by (Young’s) behavior” that was “verbally aggressive,” according to the court documents.
Young apologized about the “damage and inconvenience” of his behavior, USA Today reported. His attorney did not return a request for comment. WestJet declined to comment.
— Wire reports