Sept 13 2022 – Today’s Biggest News Stories

A woman is suing the city of San Francisco after its police department used her DNA samples from a sexual assault case back in 2016 to charge her with an unrelated property theft five years later.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court on Monday, states that in 2016 the woman provided a DNA sample to the San Francisco Police Department after she reported being sexually assaulted. Across a span of more than six years, “the crime lab routinely ran crime scene evidence through this database that included the Plaintiff’s DNA without ever attempting to get her consent or anyone else’s consent,” the lawsuit’s complaint says.

In December 2021, the police department used an alleged match between crime scene evidence and DNA that the woman had provided to arrest her on allegations of burglary, per the lawsuit. The property theft charge was ultimately dropped after then–district attorney Chesa Boudin denounced the practice as a possible violation of constitutional rights, but the woman said the police’s actions left her once again feeling violated.

When news of the incident first broke, legal experts and advocates for sexual assault survivors said the misuse of genetic information by police could keep people from reporting crimes. Federal law already doesn’t allow police agencies to use victims’ DNA in the national database, but local databases like San Francisco’s are largely unregulated.

Don’t declare victory too soon, the Biden administration says.

• Following Ukraine’s military win near Kharkiv, cracks are showing in the Kremlin’s control over Russian media. “The divergence of views … highlighted how Moscow’s narrative has quickly shifted from a conviction that it was only a matter of time before Russia subjugated Ukraine to a sense of alarm over the rapid progress of Kyiv’s forces,” Ivan Nechepurenko reported for the New York Times. “And it was a contrast from the muted response after Russia’s drive to take Kyiv failed in the spring.”

• But the Biden administration says it’s too soon to get hopes up about the war ending in Ukraine’s favor, the Los Angeles Times reported. “We’re going to just continue to support their need to succeed on the battlefield,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday.

SNAPSHOTS

The winners of the 2022 Emmys. Succession led the pack with 25 nominations, and Ted Lasso, Squid Game, and The White Lotus (ahem, JENNIFER COOLIDGE) were also big winners on Monday night.

Everything that’s happening leading up to Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral. The days preceding the Queen’s state funeral have been meticulously planned for decades. It starts with a Royal Force aircraft and ends with a burial in Windsor.

Mourners have been asked to stop leaving Paddington Bears and marmalade sandwiches for the Queen. “We would prefer visitors not to bring non-floral objects/artifacts such as teddy bears or balloons.”