Sparkling future seen with merger of cleaning supply businesses

Tropical Storm Colin has brought rain and winds to parts of North and South Carolina, though the storm has weakened and conditions are expected to improve by Monday's July Fourth celebrations. Separately, the center of Tropical Storm Bonnie rolled into the Pacific on Saturday after a rapid march across Central America, where it caused flooding, downed trees and forced thousands of people to evacuate in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Forecasters say Bonnie is likely to become a hurricane by Monday off the southern coast of Mexico, but it is unlikely to make a direct hit on land.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Wednesday threw out the 2020 conspiracy and bribery convictions of a major political donor in North Carolina and his associate, declaring that the trial judge erred in his jury instructions.

The man accused of opening fire at an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago legally bought five weapons, including two high-powered rifles. Authorities said Tuesday that the purchases were allowed even though police were called to his home twice in 2019 for threats of violence and suicide. The suspect was charged with seven counts of murder. Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart promised that dozens more charges would be sought and that the man could receive a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole. The assailant sprayed more than 70 rounds from a rooftop into a crowd in Highland Park, an affluent community of about 30,000 on the Lake Michigan shore.

For many people, the mass shooting that killed at least seven people and injured 30 others in a Chicago suburb on July 4 was yet another reminder that any place, any event in the U.S. can turn dangerous or deadly. Highland Park is one of the country’s safest towns, and July 4th parades among the most American of celebrations. Even before Monday’s killings, some people already were on edge, questioning whether to venture into large gatherings, looking over their shoulders during even the most run-of-the-mill activities, from grocery shopping to going to school or catching a movie.

The parents of a 2-year-old boy who got lost during the July 4 parade shooting in suburban Chicago are among the seven people who were killed, authorities said as friends and family mourned their lost loved ones. Officials say 37-year-old Kevin McCarthy and 35-year-old Irina McCarthy, 35 were fatally shot while watching the parade in Highland Park, a Chicago suburb. Their son, Aiden, became separated from them in the chaos. Authorities identified four others who died as Katherine Goldstein, 64; Jacquelyn Sundheim, 63; Stephen Straus, 88; and Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, 78. Every victim was from Highland Park except for Toledo-Zaragoza, who was living with his family in the city but originally came from Morelos, Mexico. Officials haven’t identified the seventh victim.

Brittney Griner’s appeal to President Joe Biden in a handwritten letter continued to garner reaction Tuesday after the WNBA All-Star acknowledged she feared never returning home and asked Biden not “forget about me and the other American Detainees.” Griner’s letter was delivered through her representatives to the White House on Monday and officials say the president has read it. However Griner’s wife, Cherelle, said Tuesday on a morning talk show that she hadn’t heard from Biden. The Phoenix Mercury center and two-time Olympic gold medalist is in the midst of a trial in Russia that began last week after she was arrested on Feb. 17 on charges of possessing cannabis oil while returning to play for her Russian team. The trial will resume Thursday.

The Georgia prosecutor investigating the conduct of former President Donald Trump and his allies after the 2020 election is subpoenaing U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to testify before a special grand jury. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Tuesday filed petitions with the judge overseeing the jury as part of her investigation into what she alleges was “a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump Campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.” The move marks a major escalation in a case that pose a serious legal challenge to the former president as he weighs another White House run.

The latest act of mass violence to hit the U.S. has focused attention on Highland Park’s 2013 ban on semi-automatic weapons and large-capacity magazines. The clampdown survived a legal challenge that ended at the U.S. Supreme Court’s doorstep in 2015 when justices declined to hear the case. Police say a gunman used a high powered weapon “similar to an AR-15" when he opened fire on an Independence Day parade Monday in the northern Chicago suburb, killing seven people and wounding more than 30.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — As attorneys argued about abortion laws across the South on Tuesday, a Mississippi judge rejected a request by the state’s only abortion clinic to temporarily block a law that would ban most abortions.