Man pleads guilty to threatening Pelosi
WASHINGTON — A man who drove from Colorado to the District of Columbia on Jan. 6 with a pistol, a rifle and 2,500 rounds of ammunition in his truck pleaded guilty Friday to threatening in a text message to shoot House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in the head.
Cleveland Meredith Jr., 53, originally from Atlanta, planned to arrive in Washington on Jan. 5 to attend rallies supporting then-President Donald Trump’s unfounded claims of election fraud, but car trouble delayed his arrival until rioting at the U.S. Capitol ended the following day, he said in plea papers.
Meredith pleaded guilty to one count of interstate communication of threats, punishable by up to five years in prison, and prosecutors agreed to drop three District weapons registration charges. He faces a potential advisory federal sentencing range of either six to 12 months or 18 to 24 months in prison, depending on whether the government argues and the judge agrees that there is evidence he could have been able to carry out his threat.
Judge: ‘Slender Man’ attacker to be freed
MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin woman who admitted to helping stab a classmate to please online horror character Slender Man will be freed Monday from a mental health institution under strict conditions, a judge ruled Friday.
Anissa Weier, 19, will be released after spending almost four years at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Oshkosh. A conditional release plan calls for her to live with her father, submit to GPS monitoring and receive psychiatric treatment, among other things.
Weier and a friend, Morgan Geyser, were committed to Winnebago after pleading guilty to attacking Payton Leutner when they were all 12 years old. Geyser stabbed Leutner multiple times as Weier urged her on. Leutner suffered 19 stab wounds and barely survived.
Florida school mask fights heat up
WASHINGTON — The Education Department said Friday that it is investigating whether Florida was violating the rights of students with disabilities by preventing school districts from requiring masks.
The announcement came on the same day that an appeals court sided with Gov. Ron DeSantis, reinstating for now his ban on mask mandates in public schools. The ruling reversed a decision that had temporarily allowed school districts to enforce their mask rules as the court looks at the substance of a lawsuit over the issue.
N.C. governor vetoes classroom measure
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed two bills on Friday that would have limited how public school teachers can discuss certain racial concepts and raised penalties on those who engage in violent protests.
The bill was part of a national effort by Republicans to combat views they associated with “critical race theory,” a framework developed in the 1970s and 1980s that centers on the belief that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions and maintains the dominance of whites in society.
— From wire reports
