Friday morning news - May 27, 2022

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Authorities still piecing together timeline in deadly school shooting » Authorities in Texas say they’re still piecing together the timeline of events before and during Tuesday’s school massacre in Uvalde.

Victor Escalon with the Department of Public Safety told reporters Thursday …

ESCALON: We want to know what happened, recreate the scene. That takes days; that takes hours; that takes times; a lot of information.

Dispatchers received the first 911 call at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday. That was right after suspect Salvador Ramos crashed a pickup truck near Robb Elementary School and fired his AR-style rifle at bystanders.

Escalon said the shooter climbed a school fence and entered a door on the west side, shooting the entire time. Police are investigating whether the door was unlocked.

ESCALON: It was reported that a school district police officer confronted the suspect that was making entry. Not accurate. He walked in undisrupted initially.

He said police arrived approximately four minutes after the shooter entered, but a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team did not kill him until roughly an hour later.

The shooter allegedly barricaded himself in two adjoining classrooms. During that time, Escalon said authorities helped other students and personnel escape.

While waiting for backup, police tried to negotiate with the shooter, who responded with further shots to keep officers at bay.

The Texas Rangers are leading the investigation, along with several federal agencies.

Trump loses appeal, must testify in New York civil probe » Former President Donald Trump will have to testify under oath in a New York state civil investigation into his business practices. That was the ruling from a state appeals court on Thursday. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has more.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: A four-judge panel upheld Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron’s February ruling enforcing subpoenas for Trump and his two oldest children. They will have to answer questions in Attorney General Letitia James’ probe of the Trump business.

Trump’s lawyers argued that ordering them to testify violated their constitutional rights because their answers could be used in a parallel criminal investigation.

The Trumps could still appeal the ruling to the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals.

Letitia James, a Democrat, has said her investigation has uncovered evidence Trump’s company used “fraudulent or misleading” valuations of assets to get loans and tax benefits.

The former president’s lawyers say the probe is baseless and politically motivated.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Blinken: US to leverage Russia-Ukraine bloc against China » Secretary of State Tony Blinken said Thursday the Biden administration aims to lead a coalition of free nations in a long-term effort to counter China.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has largely united the West, but Blinken said the free world must be clear about the larger threat.

BLINKEN: China’s the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order, and increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it.

He said, “Beijing’s vision would move us away from the universal values that have sustained so much of the world’s progress over the past 75 years.”

Blinken laid out a vision to marshal U.S. resources and work closely with friends and allies to stand firm against China’s increasingly troubling behavior.

BLINKEN: Under President Xi, the ruling Chinese Communist Party has become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad.

He made clear that the United States does not seek to change China's political system, rather it wants to promote a tested alternative.

Abortion group challenges protections for unborn in Oklahoma » An abortion group in Oklahoma filed a legal challenge Thursday seeking to halt a new law that would largely put an end to abortions in that state. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has that story.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: The lawsuit asks the Oklahoma Supreme Court to stop the new law from taking effect.

The new law would prohibit all abortions except to save the life of a pregnant woman or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

Previously, the court declined to temporarily halt a similar law that protects unborn children from about six weeks of pregnancy. That law took effect earlier this year.

But the court did agree to hear arguments in that case and scheduled dates for briefs to be filed over the summer.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Oklahoma governor signs public school bathroom bill » Meantime, the state of Oklahoma may have another legal battle on its hands over a separate law.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has signed a bill requiring public school students to use only the bathroom of the sex listed on their birth certificate.

The Republican author of the bill, Representative Danny Williams, said “It’s about common sense.” He added, “The goal of this bill is to protect our children.”

LGBT activists and allied groups, including the ACLU, say they’re discussing legal action.

Actor Ray Liotta dies at 67 » Actor Ray Liotta has died. He was best known for playing mobster Henry Hill in Goodfellas and baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams.

CLIP: Hey, is this heaven? No, it’s Iowa.

In contrast to his on-screen tough-guy persona, Liotta said in a 1997 interview that he was actually rather gentle in real life.

LIOTTA: I have been in one fight in my whole life and that was in the 7th grade. It’s just not who I am, but it’s interesting that people think that way.

And despite multiple roles as an Italian mobster, he learned later in life that he wasn’t even Italian.

The Newark, New Jersey, native was adopted at the age of six months. He later learned his birth parents were Scottish.

Liotta reportedly died in his sleep Wednesday night while in the Dominican Republic to film a new movie. He was 67 years old.

I’m Kent Covington. For more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org. 

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