A Florida  redistricting plan  pushed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis violates the state constitution and is prohibited from being used for any future U.S. congressional elections since it diminishes the ability of Black voters in north Florida to pick a representative of their choice, a state judge ruled Saturday. Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh sent the plan back to the Florida Legislature with instructions that lawmakers should draw a new congressional map that complies with the Florida Constitution.

https://scrippsnews.com/stories/judge-desantis-florida-redistricting-map-unconstitutional/

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The historic impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton began Tuesday with accusations of corruption that went unchecked for years and the Republican pleading not guilty as his party confronts whether to oust one of former President Donald Trump's biggest defenders. But the day ended without Paxton around at all — he left and did not return after the state Senate overwhelmingly rejected his numerous attempts to dismiss the charges. His absence does not stop Texas' first impeachment trial in nearly 50 years, but demonstrates the potential twists ahead in the coming weeks.

https://scrippsnews.com/stories/texas-attorney-general-paxton-pleads-not-guilty-at-impeachment-trial/

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Impeachment is a word that's thrown around a lot in Congress. Lately, it's been House Republicans wanting to impeach President Biden, or a member of his cabinet. But impeachment is a process state lawmakers are turning to more often. In the Texas Senate, the impeachment trial for Attorney General Ken Paxton got underway this week. The Republican-led state House voted to impeach him in May on 20 articles, including bribery, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and dereliction of duty. "The allegations in the articles reveal that the state's top lawyer engaged in conduct designed to advance the economic interests and legal positions of a friend and donor to the determent of innocent Texans," said State Rep.

https://scrippsnews.com/stories/impeachment-has-a-long-history-as-a-partisan-process/

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Have you ever wondered what a ship looks like at 142 years old? A ship called the Trinidad has been located off the coast of Wisconsin in Lake Michigan, where it sank. It is so well-preserved that you can see details like the wheel, and even dishes inside the deck house.  Brendon Baillod and fellow maritime historian Robert Jaeck spent two years looking for the vessel. "I would rank it as one of the best-preserved sailing ships that's been found in Wisconsin waters, if not the best," said Baillod.

https://scrippsnews.com/stories/a-142-year-old-sunken-ship-has-been-found-in-lake-michigan/

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A crew of people eating an early Labor Day lunch were interrupted when a car crashed into the restaurant's dining room, injuring nearly two dozen guests. Police  in Rosenberg, Texas, said they began receiving multiple 911 calls about the incident at 11:22 a.m. Monday. That's around the time the vehicle crashed right through the south wall of a Denny's restaurant. A total of 23 people aged 12 to 60 were injured while sitting inside, with wounds ranging from minor lacerations to severe but not life-threatening, police said.

https://scrippsnews.com/stories/driver-crashes-into-denny-s-restaurant-injures-23-people-inside/

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Murderer Danelo Cavalcante was able to escape a prison yard in suburban Pennsylvania last week by climbing up a wall and over razor wire, officials said at a news conference Wednesday. Howard Holland, the acting warden of the prison, said there was a guard in an observation tower who has since been put on administrative leave. There were no guards walking in the yard. A security video of the escape shows Cavalcante, 34, standing in a passageway bracing his hands against one wall and his feet against another, then walking his way upward out of the camera's view.

https://scrippsnews.com/stories/pennsylvania-inmate-escaped-by-climbing-up-a-wall-and-over-razor-wire/

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A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Texas to move a large floating barrier to the bank of the Rio Grande after protests from the U.S. and Mexican governments over Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's latest tactic to stop migrants from crossing America's southern border. The decision by U.S. District Judge David Ezra of Texas is likely to be appealed by the state, which for the past two years has aggressively pushed legal boundaries to curb the flow of migrants under a sprawling mission known as Operation Lone Star.

https://scrippsnews.com/stories/judge-orders-texas-to-move-floating-barrier-used-to-deter-migrants/

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There will be 2,000 more rhinos in the wild within the next decade, thanks to a South African conservationist group heading one of the continent's largest rewilding programs of any species. The nonprofit group,  African Parks , announced it had purchased the world's largest captive rhino breeding operation named "Platinum Rhino," which was put up for auction Aug. 23 as a result of financial stress. The more than 7,800-hectare property never got any bids, putting the 2,000 southern white rhinos at the farm at risk of being  poached , African Parks said.

https://scrippsnews.com/stories/2-000-white-rhinos-will-be-released-into-the-wild-over-the-next-decade/

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Along a 400-mile river that runs from Mississippi into Louisiana, there are big hopes for a tiny fish. The Pearl Darter has once again returned to its name-sake waterway, Pearl River, not far from Pinola, Mississippi. Fifty years ago, pollution caused the tiny  Pearl Darter , a snub-nosed bottom dweller, to vanish from a waterway stretching from central Mississippi to southeast Louisiana. While some pollution issues persist, the water has improved in quality. It's now clean enough that state and federal officials are attempting to revive the Pearl Darter population by introducing fish from a private hatchery.

https://scrippsnews.com/stories/a-tiny-fish-returns-to-mississippi-after-vanishing-50-years-ago/

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In an aggressive move that angered Republicans, the Biden administration canceled the seven remaining oil and gas leases in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Wednesday, overturning sales held in the Trump administration's waning days, and proposed stronger protections against development on 13 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The Department of Interior's scrapping of the leases comes after the Biden administration disappointed environmental groups earlier this year by approving the Willow oil project in the petroleum reserve, a massive project by ConocoPhillips Alaska that could produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil a day on Alaska's petroleum-rich North Slope.

https://scrippsnews.com/stories/biden-administration-cancels-oil-and-gas-leases-in-alaska-refuge/

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Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, has been indicted by federal prosecutors on three firearm charges. The indictment was filed Thursday by special counsel David Weiss.  Two of the charges stem from a false statement Hunter Biden allegedly gave a gun dealer in Delaware in 2018. In the indictment, Weiss claimed Biden knowingly made a false and fictitious written statement and intended to deceive a gun dealer. Weiss said in the indictment that Biden provided a written statement on Form 4473 certifying he was not an unlawful user of any narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious.

https://scrippsnews.com/stories/hunter-biden-indicted-by-federal-prosecutors-on-gun-charge/

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