National

(ANNAPOLIS, Md.) — Jarrod Warren Ramos, the gunman who killed five Capital Gazette employees in June 2018, was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Ramos, 41, pleaded guilty to 23 criminal charges in connection with the Annapolis, Maryland, newsroom shooting but used an insanity defense to claim he was not criminally responsible. A jury found him criminally responsible over the summer.

Anne Arundel County Judge Michael Wachs handed down the sentence of five consecutive life sentences to be served without the chance for parole, bringing an end to the long, legal battle. Ramos did not make a statement in court.

He was also sentenced to an additional life in prison plus 345 years, all to run consecutively, Anne Arundel County State Attorney’s office said in a statement.

Ramos opened fire on employees inside the Capital Gazette’s office building, killing Wendi Winters, John McNamera, Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen and Rebecca Smith.

Family members of victims and survivors of the shooting spoke during the emotional hearing.

“There were days I wondered why I lived, but I lived to tell the truth. No shooter could kill this paper. You can’t kill the truth,” Selene San Felice, a reporter who survived the shooting, said to Ramos at the hearing, Maryland news radio station WBAL reported.

Judge Wachs said that Ramos showed no remorse for his crimes and told a state psychiatrist he’d kill more if he were ever released.

“The impact of this case is just simply immense,” Wachs said, Associated Press reported. “To say that the defendant exhibited a callous and complete disregard for the sanctity of human life is simply a huge understatement.”

Prosecutors said revenge was Ramos’ motivation for the shooting.

Ramos had accused the Capital Gazette of destroying his reputation when it covered his misdemeanor harassment conviction in 2011. He was accused of harassing a former female high school student and filed several lawsuits against the newspaper, which were dismissed by the courts.

In a press conference following the sentencing, State Attorney Anne Colt Leitess said, “Justice was served.”

“He exploited his lawsuit and his losing of the lawsuit and killed innocent people just to feel better about himself,” she said. “The jury saw through that and the judge saw through that today, sentencing him to the maximum sentence under law.”

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(LOS ANGELES) — Karla Rodriguez moved her family from El Salvador to Los Angeles five months ago to give her kids a better education and a better life.

Her 8-year-old son has autism. Someone at his new school recommended she reach out to a nonprofit health advocacy group, Community Health Councils, to help with his special care. Among other support and guidance, the organization helped the Rodriguez family get health insurance.

“We are immigrants, and perhaps we don’t have rights that citizens do,” Rodriguez told Los Angeles ABC station KABC in Spanish, adding that she’s grateful that California is welcoming to families like hers. “This is a huge privilege, a blessing, for our family to be able to count on something so vital, such as health care and access to it.”

But access to health insurance is a luxury not available to millions of Hispanic or Latino people across the United States. In the 100 largest U.S. cities, white people are more likely to have health insurance than people of color — and the largest gaps in most communities is experienced by Latino or Hispanic families.

The health insurance access gap is just one of many findings about the widespread inequity people of color experience in their day-to-day lives in America’s biggest cities, according to a sweeping data analysis by ABC-owned television stations.

In the report, released Tuesday, the stations’ data journalists measured equity in 20 quality-of-life areas across five categories — health, education, policing, housing and wealth, and the environment — using the latest data available from local, state and federal government agencies.

Among the findings of the stations’ report:

– In at least 18 of the 20 categories measured, the data revealed inequities in more than half of the United States’ largest cities. Among the 52 metro areas sampled, 34 are major metropolitan areas with at least 1 million residents. Twenty-three of the cities are in the Southern states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Among the 100 cities studied, all had inequities in at least 11 of the 20 categories measured.

– The inequities highlighted in the report were most widespread in the areas of housing, wealth, and interactions with police. The data revealed inequities across all five housing and wealth measurements in 87 of the 100 cities studied. The review found inequity in all three policing measurements in 86 cities.

– The data show that white families are more likely to own their home in all 100 metro areas. The homeownership gap for Black families was more than 30 percentage points in more than half the metro areas.

– Data from the FBI and local police agencies show Black residents were more likely to be arrested in all 100 metro areas, and that they were at least twice as likely to be arrested in 95 of them.

– In all but one of the 100 metro areas, an analysis of census data showed that the share of police officers who are white is larger than the share of residents who are white. In five cities including the metro areas of Durham, N.C., Portland and Las Vegas, the makeup of law enforcement agencies was whiter than their communities by more than 20 percentage points. Asian Americans were underrepresented among police in 97 of the 100 metro areas, including in every county in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Asian Americans make up around 18% of all police officers despite accounting for 34% of the population.

– Data from local schools and the U.S. Department of Education showed that Black students were twice as likely to miss days of school for suspensions than white students in 95 of 100 metro areas.

“We’re looking for fairness,” said Melanie McQueen, a parent of a high school student of color in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, where the local school district’s data shows students of color accounted for 86% of suspensions despite making up only 43% of students. “If my child did something wrong, it should not matter what color they are in regard to what their punishment is going to be.”

McQueen leads African-American Parents for Purposeful Leadership in Education, a group that has worked with school leaders to make sure policies are implemented equitably.

In a statement released in response to the equity report’s findings, Oak Park River Forest district officials said they are “committed to achieving racial equity” and their “vision of equitable excellence centers on eliminating the disparities that exist in our district.”

The equity report’s data analysis also found that access to Advanced Placement courses, which give students an advantage in college admission and readiness, is more available to white students than students of color in more than half of the 100 cities studied.

Heather Bennett, Director of Equity Services for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, said her state is working to bridge those kinds of gaps.

“That’s what equity is,” Bennett said in response to the report’s findings. “It’s literally saying, ‘I believe every single one of our children are gifted — but they’re gifted in different ways and require different things and resources.’ So what are we going to do to make sure that they are going to be successful, based upon their idea of success?”

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(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — Tae-Ahn Lea says he had no previous criminal record when the 18-year-old was pulled over for a routine traffic stop in Louisville, Kentucky, in August 2018.

Yet, he said he was forced to stand by the side of the road, handcuffed, while the Louisville Metro Police searched his car after its K-9 unit alerted police to drugs — despite Lea insisting otherwise.

“Well, my heart dropped because I knew there wasn’t drugs in that car,” Lea told ABC News. “I dropped my head down … And I told them multiple times that I didn’t [have drugs] when they asked me, because I didn’t.”

Lea said that police never found anything illegal inside the car, but for nearly 25 minutes they turned the car inside out — even checking under the lid of his drink for contraband.

Lawrence Myers, a professor at Auburn University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, said that Lea’s incident is an example of why policing, and use of K-9 units, need to change.

“Dogs make mistakes. Sometimes a mistake resides in the handler’s suspicions,” said Myers. “If the handler suspects that, in fact, drugs are present, it’s very difficult to behave in such a fashion that you don’t unconsciously cue the dog to alert.”

Police canines are often used in traffic stops when an officer needs to confirm a suspicion. The dogs are trained to detect multiple drugs, but alert for all in the same way.

Myers said there are myriad factors that can influence police dog detection.

“Certainly their sensory capacity, certainly their training and the maintenance of that training, certainly the training of the handler and the maintenance of that training… That might bias the handler or bias the dog to unconsciously cue things,” said Myers.

But as marijuana becomes increasingly legalized in states across the country, police canines cannot distinguish between marijuana or an illegal drug.

Over the summer, Virginia became the 16th state to legalize adult possession of marijuana.

Sgt. Kyle Russell of the Alexandria, Virginia, police department, said that drug-sniffing dogs trained to detect marijuana were retired from the police unit because they can no longer be used to establish probable cause for search.

“[Marijuana] is legal… We don’t want it to be a tricky situation,” said Russell, who said there is no way to train a dog to signal certain quantities of drugs. “It’s better to not violate someone’s rights then to maybe get a couple ounces of marijuana.”

Russell’s canine partner, Taz, is trained to sniff out cocaine, meth and heroin. According to the National Police Dog Foundation, a police K-9 alone can cost $8,000, but patrol school and other specialized training can range from $12,000 to $15,000.

Russell said he is optimistic that agencies are adapting their training.

“I think people have found that the money, time and resources that go into programs really benefits the community because the dogs can do so many amazing things that we as humans or police officers just wouldn’t be able to do,” said Russell.

“I think a lot of agencies and others have gotten better at learning dog behavior,” he added.

Despite the good that comes from police dogs, they have a tense history in the U.S. — especially along racial lines when they were first used against enslaved Black people and later against Civil Rights protesters.

In Lea’s case, he said the historical context drove him to speak up about his experience. In a pending lawsuit against the Louisville Metro Police Department and the officers involved in his stop, Lea claimed he was “targeted” because he is a Black man and that his civil rights were violated.

“Growing up [as a] young black male, you know, never want to put my mother in that, you know, scenario to see me in handcuffs,” Lea said. “Pull over on the side of the road. Canine dogs around, police officers around. She taught me way better than that.”

The Louisville Metro Police and the officers denied Lea’s allegations in court papers. ABC reached out to LMPD for comment, but has not yet received a response.

In 2019, after Lea’s traffic stop, the Louisville Metro Police Department put a new policy in place for how officers pull people over, including guidance that someone being nervous or in a high-crime area are not indicators to justify certain police actions, as well as guidelines for handcuffing someone who is not under arrest.

In terms of dogs within police units, Sgt. Russell of Alexandria, Virginia, said that with proper and updated training, man’s best friend will likely remain in place.

“I think people recognize the fact that the dogs are amazing animals and their noses can do incredible things,” he said. “I think they’re here to stay as long as canine teams continue to deploy them properly.”

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(CHICAGO) — Ahead of the groundbreaking of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, former President Barack Obama reflected on the gun violence that has plagued the Windy City and said that he intends for his presidential library to be a part of the solution.

“Chicago alone can’t solve the gun problem,” Obama told “Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts in an exclusive interview that aired on Tuesday, adding that Congress needs to pass “common sense gun safety measures.”

Gun reform efforts were repeatedly blocked by Republicans during Obama’s presidency and continue to stall in Congress.

President Joe Biden announced a series of executive orders in April aimed at addressing gun violence and called on the Senate to pass a pair of gun reform bills adopted by the Democratic-led House, including a ban on assault weapons.

“Chicago alone can’t stop the easy access and flood of guns into these communities. But what we can do is potentially give young people the sense that there’s another way for them to empower themselves, other than wielding a gun,” Obama said.

Reflecting on violent crime in low-income communities in cities like Chicago, Obama said, “The constant is young people, mostly young men, who have not gotten a good education, don’t have a good opportunity, are not seeing good role models, are living in neighborhoods that are frayed and fractured.”

A total of at least 2,688 shooting incidents have happened in Chicago this year, an 11% increase from the same period as last year, according to police department crime statistics. The city has recorded 602 homicides this year — a 4% increase from 2020.

Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown announced a new strategy to combat gun violence in July which includes a crackdown on illegal guns pouring into the city.

Obama said that tackling the problem is a “generational project” — one that he intends to address through Obama Presidential Center programs like My Brother’s Keeper, which works to create opportunities for boys and men of color in underserved communities.

“If we’re doing that in a systemic way, year after year, then over time, we can reduce these incidents of violence,” he added.

Other major cities across the U.S. are also grappling with a rise in shootings.

President Joe Biden announced a range of actions in June aimed at curbing gun violence, saying that violent crime has “spiked since the start of the pandemic.”

ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson, Rick Klein, Quinn Owen, Katie Bosland, Mya Green and Danielle Genet contributed to this report.

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(BROOKLYN, N.Y.) — After years of allegations and legal battles, a swift decision was made in a Brooklyn courtroom Monday to convict singer R. Kelly on eight counts of sex trafficking and one count of racketeering charges.

Lisa Van Allen, who testified against the R&B singer, and Tamra Simmons, executive producer of the documentary “Surviving R. Kelly,” joined “Good Morning America” Tuesday in an exclusive interview following the singer’s guilty verdict.

“We were crying because — I think everybody was just shocked,” Simmons said of the initial moments following the decision. “These women, these survivors, these men that testified, I just am so thankful that — black women’s voices are now being able to be heard.”

“These women are like heroes to me — they helped show that we are human, you know, and that black women don’t have to have superpowers and we don’t have to endure pain and suffering and things like that in order to, you know, say that we’re a strong black woman,” Simmons said. “Like things can happen to us and now we can speak out about it.”

Kelly, 54, could spend the rest of his life in prison for leading what prosecutors alleged was a criminal enterprise, leading an entourage of individuals with the help of his fame to recruit women and girls to engage in illegal sexual activity.

After years of allegations by multiple accusers fighting for justice, Van Allen told “GMA” she almost cried upon hearing Monday’s verdict.

“This is what I was looking for back in 2008, so I would say that I believe that the difference is this time is that there is power in numbers,” she said.

Van Allen said she believes the allegations from black and minority women were not taken seriously initially because “there wasn’t like a group of us — it would always be one here, one there — they didn’t look deep into it or anything like that and, you know, and I do think still the timing was off.”

Fifty witnesses took the stand over the course of Kelly’s six-week trial, including 11 alleged victims in this case, in which the prosecution asserted that Kelly had encounters with six women.

Simmons’ 2019 documentary, which Van Allen appeared in, brought attention to the R&B singer’s case and helped give them a platform for their voices to be heard, she said.

“These women have been dealing with this for years and actually didn’t want to speak out because, you know, they’re thinking ‘who is going to listen to me? Who is going to believe me?'” Simmons said. “I just knew that if we had eyes on this, that we can’t turn a blind eye anymore and so I think what these women and the families that have gone through this and trusted, you know, our team as producers and understanding that, you know, we’re going to try to find justice for you even if we can’t, we still believe you because a lot of these women just wanted to be heard.”

Lawyers for Kelly, who pleaded not guilty, said the relationships were consensual suggesting the accusers were jilted lovers and fan girls trying to cash in.

“The guilty verdict forever brands R. Kelly as a predator who used his fame and fortune to prey on the young, the vulnerable and the voiceless,” Jacquelyn M. Kasulis, acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said Monday following the verdict.

Simmons said Kelly “built this enterprise to be able to lure young women and men [who] he knew would be vulnerable and he basically preyed upon that. And I’m just thankful that now our future daughters and sons no longer, you know, have the possibility of encountering this man and having this done to them.”

R. Kelly is scheduled to be sentenced in May of next year. He faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years behind bars and up to life in prison.

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(CHICAGO) — The Obama Presidential Center will provide economic investment and opportunities for young people on Chicago’s South Side, President Barack Obama said an interview with “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts ahead of the center’s grand opening.

Obama has a personal connection to the area; he said that he first “learned how to work in public service as a community organizer” and announced a run for political office in the South Side.

“But part of it is also because I believe that both here, in America, and around the world, we’re at a critical juncture where we can either go down the path of division and conflict and tribalism and cynicism, or we can pull together and solve big problems,” Obama said. “And a test case is in a city as wealthy as Chicago, in a country as powerful as the United States; is everybody included? And, you know, here on the South Side, there’s young people who are enormously talented, enormously gifted, but often forgotten.”

Those young people on the South Side of Chicago — a predominantly African-American area of the city which has historically faced redlining, divestment and discrimination — are often surrounded by “poverty, crime and drugs,” Obama said.

“And so, for us to be able to build a world-class institution that will attract millions of people and bring billions of dollars of benefits and thousands of jobs into a community that so often is forgotten, [that] hopefully will send a signal that those young people count. Those young people matter,” he added.

Building the center will also help give people from the South Side jobs and train them in professions that can be of use to them in the future, Obama said.

The Obama Presidential Center differs from previous presidential libraries in that it is not run by the National Archives and Records Administration. It will host a branch of the Chicago Public Library, but the records themselves will be digitized and stored elsewhere.

The center’s planning has not been free of controversy; it has previously faced lawsuits over its location in Jackson Park, a public park that is on the National Register of Historic Places and was designed by Central Park designer Frederick Law Olmsted.

Community activists on the South Side of Chicago have also called on the Obama Foundation and the city of Chicago to ensure current residents are not displaced from nearby neighborhoods through gentrification.

Obama told Roberts he is confident that the center will enhance the park, and that he and the Obama Foundation have “gone through such an exhaustive process” to get community input in developing the establishment.

He had previously said that he did not want to sign agreements with community groups, because he did not think those agreements could represent everyone.

All in all, Obama said he wants the center to send a message of empowerment.

“Ultimately, what we wanna do is empower [people in the community] to do the work where they live in their various communities. And part of the goal of the presidential center is anybody who visits the museum, we want them to come through and, at the end of the museum, we’re gonna be asking them the question, ‘How can you make a contribution?'” Obama told Roberts.

“We wanna be able to say to them, ‘Look, this isn’t about some president over there. This is about citizens like you who could make a difference,'” he added.

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(NEW YORK) — Recreational pot has become legal for more Americans, but despite that ease of access, marijuana use hasn’t ignited, a study released Monday found.

An article published in The Journal of the American Medical Association found there was no increase in cannabis use among the general population or among previous users after their states legalized marijuana.

Researchers surveyed about 830,000 Americans over age 12 on their reported cannabis use, both before and after recreational marijuana was passed in their state. The study looked at data between 2008 and 2017.

Washington state and Colorado became the first states to legalize recreational marijuana in 2021, after which marijuana use saw a slight increase among Hispanic and white participants, researchers said.

The study also found there were no changes in cannabis use or cannabis use disorder for individuals between the ages of 12 and 20 in the states that legalized the substance.

As of Sept. 27, 18 states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana use for adults over 21. In this year alone, four states, New York, New Mexico, Virginia and Connecticut, legalized the substance.

ABC News’ Dr. Ronnye Rutledge contributed to this report.

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(CHICAGO) — Ahead of Tuesday’s groundbreaking on the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, former President Barack Obama reflected on the center’s mission and defended his decision to choose the historic Jackson Park neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side as the site to honor his legacy.

Some community organizers have expressed concern that development of the center, which would become a tourist attraction, could lead to gentrification of the neighborhood, while park preservationists have challenged the construction in court, citing environmental concerns.

“The truth is, any time you do a big project, unless you’re in the middle of a field somewhere, you know, and it’s on private property, there’s always going to be some people who say, ‘Well, but we don’t want change. We’re worried about it. We don’t know how it’s going to turn out,'” Obama told Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts in an exclusive interview. “Which is why we’ve gone through such an exhaustive process to encourage and elicit comments and concerns and criticism and suggestions from the community.”

Jackson Park is a public park on the National Register of Historic Places that was designed by New York Central Park designer Frederick Law Olmsted.

A four-year federal review, which concluded in February, determined that the new Obama Center would pose “no significant impact to the human environment.”

But Protect Our Parks, a nonprofit park preservationist organization that filed an unsuccessful lawsuit to block construction in 2018, filed another lawsuit in April challenging the federal review.

The group argued that construction “will tear up this Frederick Law Olmsted masterpiece,” resulting in the removal of trees, the removal of the Women’s Garden and the closure of roadways.

On Aug. 21 the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal by the group to block construction.

Amid ongoing litigation, Protect Our Parks on Sept. 20 filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Seventh Circuit in support of its preliminary injunction request, the group told ABC News.

Monday, on the eve of the groundbreaking, a spokesperson for the group released a statement saying that “the homecoming of the former President and the First Lady should be a moment of pride for Chicagoans. On this visit, though, we hope they will mourn the devastation of the initial clear-cutting of the mature trees and the destruction of the Women’s Garden in Jackson Park, in addition to the long-term environmental and public health dangers that will ensue.”

“Unfortunately, hosting a series of virtual groundbreakings will not change the facts of the case or the long-term adverse effects on the community,” the statement said. “On the contrary, it would take one decision by Mr. and Mrs. Obama to relocate the OPC site to the adjacent area close to Washington Park.”

Asked about the legal hurdles, Obama said that he’s “absolutely confident” that the center will benefit the local community.

“The overwhelming majority of the community has been not just OK with it, but are hugely enthusiastic about it,” he told Roberts.

Presidential libraries are often housed in affluent areas, but much of Chicago’s South Side, which is home to a predominantly Black community, is in an underserved and economically depressed area of the city.

The Obama Presidential Center, which will honor the legacy of the first Black president, will include a library, museum, gardens, and a children’s playground. Organizers say it will seek to bring investments and jobs to the community.

“The Obama Presidential Center will connect the economy of the South Side of Chicago with the rest of the city, creating new jobs and opportunities. It will breathe new life into a park that has long been protected and loved, but underused. And it will uphold our commitment to this vibrant community,” according to the Obama Foundation, which is funding the project.

Obama was born in Hawaii but spent much of his formative years on Chicago’s South Side. It was there that he worked as a community organizer and was first elected to public office. The former president decided in 2016 that the South Side, where is also where former first lady Michelle Obama grew up, would house his presidential library.

“The young person who’s growing up across the street or down the block or a few miles away, now suddenly have a place where concerts and speeches and debates and forums are taking place that they can access,” Obama said.

“If they want to bring about change in their neighborhoods, they’ve got resources and people who can teach them how to do that effectively. And they’re going to be able to see themselves as part of that change in a way that, so often, they don’t feel right now.”

The Obamas, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker are set to attend Tuesday’s groundbreaking.

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(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.

More than 690,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.7 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Just 64.8% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Sep 28, 8:55 am
Pfizer submits initial child vaccine data to FDA

Pfizer on Tuesday submitted data for the Phase 2/3 vaccine trial for 5- to 11-year-olds to the FDA.

Pfizer will make a formal request for authorization in the coming weeks.

The FDA will review the data and make a decision, possibly by the end of October. The timeline for authorization is not set in stone.

Sep 27, 8:00 pm
Judge upholds NYC school staff vaccine mandate

A three-judge panel from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has dissolved a temporary injunction that halted New York City’s vaccine mandate for school staff.

The panel offered no explanation and cleared the way for the city to enforcement the public school vaccine mandate.

“Vaccinations are our strongest tool in the fight against COVID-19 – this ruling is on the right side of the law and will protect our students and staff,” New York City’s Department of Education said in a statement.

As of Monday night, 87% of DOE employees, including 91% of teachers and 97% of principals, have at least one shot, according to the DOE.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said public school employees will have until the end of day Friday to get at least one dose of vaccine.

Michael Mulgrew, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, released a statement Monday night saying, “We will be working with our members to ensure, as far as possible, that our schools can open safely as the vaccine mandate is enforced.”

Sep 27, 7:02 pm
First lady Jill Biden receives booster shot

First lady Jill Biden received her COVID-19 booster shot Monday, according to Michael LaRosa, her spokesman.

The shot was administered at the White House in the afternoon, LaRosa told ABC News.

Sep 27, 6:10 pm
Judge rules Arizona ban on school mask mandate unconstitutional

An Arizona judge ruled Monday that the state’s ban on mask mandates in schools is unconstitutional.

Judge Katherine Cooper sided with the Arizona School Boards Association, which contended that the Arizona State Legislature’s law to ban school districts from issuing a mask mandate violates the state constitution’s title requirement and single subject rule.

The association argued that the legislature included policy regarding 30 subjects into one bill.

“The single subject rule precludes legislators from combining unrelated provisions into one bill to garner votes for disfavored measures. Together, these requirements promote transparency and the public’s access to information about legislative action,” the judge wrote in her decision.

The law was slated to go into effect on Sept. 29.

The state has until Nov. 1 to file an objection or response to the ruling.

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(LAS VEGAS) — A 6-year-old boy whose mom told him to keep his face mask on at school is now going viral for following his mom’s instructions exactly.

Mason Peoples, a first-grade student in Las Vegas, Nevada, wore his face mask for his school photo.

The photo was shared on Facebook by his mom, Nicole Peoples, who wrote that her son had the option to take his mask off.

Peoples said her son declined and told the photographer, “No Thank you, I always listen to my mom!”

“I’m so proud of him for sticking to his word, but I should have been more clear about my rules on this day,” Peoples wrote on Facebook.

While Peoples’ photo of her son quickly went viral, Mason is not the only student who chose to keep a mask on for school photos this year, according to Matthew Comfort, an account manager for Dorian Studio, the photography studio that took Mason’s school photo.

“We’ve taken hundreds and hundreds of students this fall wearing their masks,” Comfort told “Good Morning America.” “It’s not an isolated incident.”

Comfort said that Dorian Studio first asks schools if they want to give students the option to remove their mask for their school photo. If the school allows masks to be removed for the photo, then the photographer gives each student the option.

The photographer who took Mason’s school photo on Sept. 7th, followed the guidelines correctly in giving Mason the option to take off his mask and then in following his request to leave it on, according to Comfort.

“If students don’t want to [remove their mask] because of safety concerns, we don’t push them,” she said. “[The photographer] did exactly what she was supposed to do.”

Mason’s now-viral school photo with his mask on is a sign of the times, as it is now the third school year in a row upended by the coronavirus pandemic.

Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that face masks be worn at schools by both vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

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