Appeals court orders new trial for man convicted in 1979 Etan Patz case

NEW YORK (AP) — The man convicted in the 1979 killing of 6-year-old Etan Patz was awarded a new trial Monday as a federal appeals court overturned the guilty verdict in one of the nation’s most notorious missing child cases. Pedro Hernandez has been serving 25 years to life in prison since his 2017 conviction. He had been arrested in 2012 after a decades-long, haunting search for answers in Etan’s disappearance on the first day he was allowed to walk alone to his school bus stop in New York City. The appeals court overturned the conviction because of an issue involving how the trial judge handled a jury note during Hernandez’s 2017 trial — his second. His first trial ended in a jury deadlock in 2015.

FDA names former pharmaceutical company executive to oversee US drug program

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration named a longtime pharmaceutical executive to run the agency’s drug program. Dr. George Tidmarsh is the founder and former CEO of several drugmakers. He was named Monday to run the FDA’s center for drugs, which employees nearly 6,000 staffers. His appointment comes a month after the center’s acting director announced her retirement. As the agency’s top drug regulator, Tidmarsh would be tasked with following through on a number of commitments by the Trump administration. That includes reviewing the 25-year-old approval of the abortion pill mifepristone.

Ex-NYPD commissioner accuses NYC mayor of ‘character assassination’

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s former interim police commissioner has filed a $10 million defamation claim against Mayor Eric Adams for reportedly suggesting he was mentally unfit for the job of top cop. The filing comes less than a week after the ex-commissioner, Thomas Donlon, sued Adams and his top deputies, accusing them of operating the department as a criminal racket that rewarded unqualified loyalists and punished whistleblowers. Donlon said he was sidelined for trying to clean up the corruption. After that lawsuit was filed, Adams privately told members of a nonprofit business advocacy group at a meeting that he’d fired Donlon, 71, from his brief stint as commissioner last fall because he was “rapidly deteriorating mentally,” according to attendees. Donlon cited news reports about those comments in his legal claim.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers ask judge to delay release from jail over deportation fears

(AP) — Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia have asked a federal judge in Tennessee to delay releasing him from jail while he awaits trial on human smuggling charges. The request is an effort to prevent the Trump administration from deporting the Maryland construction worker for a second time. Abrego Garcia become a prominent face in the debate over President Donald Trump’s immigration policies when he was wrongfully deported to his native El Salvador in March. The administration returned him to the U.S. last month to face the smuggling charges. U.S. officials say they’ll try to deport him again if he’s released from jail.