Iraq Civilian Death Toll Almost Doubles In July

By DAVID FISCHER (Associated Press) MIAMI (AP) — Deputies responding to a disturbance call at a Florida apartment complex burst into the wrong unit and fatally shot a Black U. S. Air Force airman who was home alone when they saw he was armed with a gun, an attorney for the man’s family said Wednesday. Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, who was based at the Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field, was in his off-base apartment in Fort Walton Beach when the shooting happened on May 3. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said in a statement that Fortson was on a Facetime call with a woman at the time of the encounter. According to Crump, the woman, whom Crump didn’t identify, said Fortson was alone in his apartment when he heard a knock at the door.

TALLAHASSEE — Florida Supreme Court justices heard arguments Wednesday involving two arcade-game champs — but the case isn’t focused on who’s the grandmaster of Pac-Man. Justices are grappling instead with whether gamer David Race, who lives in Ohio, violated Florida law when he secretly recorded fellow gamer Billy Mitchell without the Broward County resident’s permission.

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN (Associated Press) ALBUQUERQUE, N. M. (AP) — New Mexico’s top prosecutor announced charges Wednesday against three men who are accused of using Meta’s social media platforms to target and solicit sex with underage children. The arrests are the result of a monthslong undercover operation in which the suspects connected with decoy accounts that were set up by the state Department of Justice.

8212; Pete McCloskey — a pro-environment, anti-war California Republican who co-wrote the Endangered Species Act and co-founded Earth Day — has died. He was 96. A fourth-generation Republican “in the mold of Teddy Roosevelt,” he often said, McCloskey represented the 12th Congressional District for 15 years, running for president against an incumbent Richard Nixon in 1972.

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE (AP Technology Writer) OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday questioned whether Apple has set up a gauntlet of exasperating hurdles to discourage the use of alternative payment options in iPhone apps, despite a court order seeking to create more ways for consumers to pay for digital services. The verbal sparring between Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers and the head of Apple’s app store kicked off a hearing focused on whether Apple is still steering U.