Michael R. Sisak, Author at The Rapid City Post

Journalist L. Vural Elibol receives medical assistance after being shoved by federal agents in immigration court on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova)

Federal agents grab and shove journalists outside NYC immigration court, sending one to hospital

September 30, 2025

Federal agents grabbed and shoved journalists in a hall outside a New York City immigration court, sending one to the hospital. The episode Tuesday at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan is the latest clash between authorities enforcing President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and members of the public seeking to observe their actions. According to video and witnesses, a photographer identified as L. Vural Elibol of the Turkish news agency Anadolu hit his head on the floor after agents pushed one journalist off an elevator and shoved another into Elibol, knocking him to the ground. Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin defended the agents’ actions, saying they were being “swarmed by agitators and members of the press, which obstructed operations.”

Europe's Rory McIlroy celebrates after a putt on the 15th hole during their singles match on the Bethpage Black golf course at the Ryder Cup golf tournament, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025, in Farmingdale, N.Y. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Rory McIlroy calls out ‘unacceptable and abusive behavior’ from Bethpage fans at Ryder Cup

September 28, 2025

Rory McIlroy won the Ryder Cup and then called out the hostile New York crowd for “unacceptable and abusive behavior.” Over his five matches at Bethpage Black, McIlroy endured a torrent of insults about everything from his personal life to past failures on the golf course. People shouted out as he lined up to swing and putt. Someone threw a beer at his wife. Over his five matches at Bethpage Black, McIlroy endured a torrent of insults about everything from his personal life to past failures on the golf course. People shouted out as he lined up to swing and putt. Someone threw a beer at his wife.

FILE - President Donald Trump tees off during the opening ceremony for the Trump International Golf Links golf course, near Aberdeen, Scotland, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Donald Trump heads to the Ryder Cup, embraced by a golf world that once shunned him

September 25, 2025

Four years ago, President Donald Trump was persona non grata in the golf world, ostracized from the sport he loves in the wake of the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. The PGA of America pulled his chance to host its major championship and officials in his hometown, New York City, tried ousting his company from the golf course it had hired him to run. On Friday, Trump will be front and center at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black on Long Island — welcomed to the first day of competition by the very powers that once shunned him. The Ryder Cup is run by the PGA of America, the organization that yanked its 2022 PGA Championship from his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf course.

United States' Eli Manning watches his tee shot on the first hole during the celebrity Ryder Cup golf tournament, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025, on the Bethpage Black golf course, in Farmingdale, N.Y. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Big laughs and a birthday serenade as US beats Europe in Ryder Cup’s celebrity showdown

September 24, 2025

Eli Manning landed a fade within 5 feet but missed the putt, Bobby Flay cooked up a birdie, John McEnroe and José Andrés mugged for pictures with red, white and blue-clad fans and Catherine Zeta-Jones curtseyed on the tee box as the crowd serenaded her on the eve of her 56th birthday. Those were the scenes Wednesday at the All-Star Celebrity Matches at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, an 11-hole event pitting U.S. and European stars from the stage, screen, sports and culinary worlds — even Hogwarts. The U.S. won 25 to 19, earning early bragging rights before the pros tee it up on Friday.

Luigi Mangione is escorted into Manhattan state court in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Luigi Mangione’s lawyers want death penalty off the table in UnitedHealthcare CEO murder case

September 20, 2025

Luigi Mangione’s lawyers are urging a judge to bar federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. They argued in court papers Saturday that authorities prejudiced his case by turning his arrest into a “Marvel movie” spectacle and by publicly declaring their desire to see him executed. Fresh from a legal victory that eliminated terrorism charges in Mangione’s state murder case, his lawyers are now fighting to have his federal case dismissed. They cited U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s declaration prior to his April indictment that capital punishment is warranted for a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.” Federal prosecutors have until Oct. 31 to respond. Mangione has pleaded not guilty.

FILE - In this Dec. 31, 2011 file photo, the crowd packs New York's Times Square during the New Year's Eve celebration as seen from the Marriott Marquis hotel. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

Appeals court keeps New York’s gun restrictions in place, including Times Square and subway ban

September 19, 2025

A federal appeals court has effectively upheld a state law in New York that bars firearms in “sensitive” locations including Times Square, the New York City subway system and commuter trains. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court judge’s 2023 ruling that allowed the state law to remain in effect after several gun owners filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of some restrictions. The gun owners appealed after they were denied a preliminary injunction that would have blocked the enforcement of provisions allowing authorities to declare Times Square a “Gun Free Zone,” ban open carry and require a special permit to carry guns in New York City. A lawyer for the plaintiffs said the decision was disappointing, but not unexpected.

FILE - Luigi Mangione, accused of fatally shooting the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City and leading authorities on a five-day search, appears in court for a hearing, Feb. 21, 2025, in New York. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool, File)

Luigi Mangione due in court amid double jeopardy fight in UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killing

September 15, 2025

Luigi Mangione is due in court as his lawyers push to have his state murder charges thrown out in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. They argue ahead of Tuesday’s hearing that the New York case and a parallel federal death penalty prosecution amount to double jeopardy. Also to be decided: a trial date and whether the state case or federal case will go first. It’s Mangione’s first court appearance in the state case since February. He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors want the judge to force Mangione’s lawyers to state whether they’ll pursue an insanity defense or introduce psychiatric evidence of any mental disease or defect he may have. Carro could either rule on those requests on Tuesday or schedule additional hearings.

FILE - New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a news conference outside Manhattan federal court in New York, Feb. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)

New York attorney general asks court to reinstate President Trump’s massive civil fraud penalty

September 4, 2025

New York’s attorney general is moving to have the state’s highest court reinstate President Donald Trump’s staggering civil fraud penalty. Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday appealed a lower-court decision that slashed the potential half-billion-dollar fine to $0. James’ office filed a notice of appeal with the state’s Court of Appeals, seeking to reverse the mid-level Appellate Division’s ruling last month that the penalty violated the U.S. Constitution’s ban on excessive fines. James, a Democrat, had previously said she would appeal. Trump, a Republican, filed his own appeal last week. He’s asking the Court of Appeals to throw out business-related punishments that the Appellate Division left in place.

FILE - E. Jean Carroll exits the New York Federal Court after former President Donald Trump appeared in court, Sept. 6, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)

Trump plans to ask Supreme Court to toss E. Jean Carroll’s $5 million abuse and defamation verdict

September 3, 2025

President Donald Trump will soon ask the Supreme Court to throw out a jury’s finding in a civil lawsuit that found that he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll at a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s and later defamed her. Trump’s lawyers previewed the move in paperwork asking the high court to extend its deadline for challenging the $5 million verdict from Sept. 10 to Nov. 11. Trump “intends to seek review” of “significant issues” arising from the trial and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ subsequent decisions upholding the abuse and defamation verdict. Trump has denied Carroll’s allegations.

FILE - Former President Donald Trump attends the closing arguments in the Trump Organization civil fraud trial at New York State Supreme Court in the Manhattan borough of New York, Jan. 11, 2024. (Shannon Stapleton/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Trump asks court to toss remaining civil fraud penalties after getting his massive fine thrown out

August 26, 2025

Days after getting his massive civil fraud penalty thrown out, President Donald Trump asked New York’s highest court on Tuesday to overturn his other punishments, including a multiyear ban on him and his two eldest sons holding corporate leadership positions. Trump’s lawyers filed a notice of appeal with the state’s Court of Appeals, seeking to erase the remaining effects of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit, which alleges he inflated his net worth on financial paperwork given to banks and insurers. It’s the first of a pair of expected appeals after a five-judge panel of the state’s mid-level Appellate Division last week overturned Trump’s monetary penalty.

FILE - Former President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom before the start of closing arguments in his civil business fraud trial at New York Supreme Court, Jan. 11, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool, File)

What’s next after a court cut Donald Trump’s $515 million fine to $0

August 22, 2025

President Donald Trump was quick to declare “TOTAL VICTORY” after a New York appeals court threw out a civil fraud penalty that stood to cost him more than a half-billion dollars. But Thursday’s ruling overturning the key punishment in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit isn’t the last word. James, a Democrat, has vowed to appeal to the state’s highest court. Trump still faces other punishments as a result of the lawsuit — including a ban on him and his two eldest sons holding corporate leadership positions for a few years — and could appeal in an attempt to get those reversed.

FILE - This photo from Tuesday May 3, 2011, shows the Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse where the Second Circuit Court of Appeals is located in New York's lower Manhattan. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

Appeals court overturns right-wing influencer’s conviction for spreading 2016 election falsehoods

July 9, 2025

A federal appeals court has overturned a self-styled right-wing propagandist’s conviction for spreading falsehoods on social media in an effort to suppress Democratic turnout in the 2016 presidential election. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday ordered a lower court to enter a judgment of acquittal for Douglass Mackey, finding that trial evidence failed to prove the government’s claim that the 36-year-old Florida man conspired with others to influence the election. Mackey was convicted in March 2023 in federal court in Brooklyn on a charge of conspiracy against rights after posting false memes that said supporters of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton could vote for her by text message or social media post.

President Donald Trump speaks during an event to sign a bill blocking California's rule banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, June 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Appeals court won’t reconsider ruling that Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll $5M in sex abuse case

June 13, 2025

A federal appeals court won’t reconsider its ruling upholding a $5 million civil judgment against President Donald Trump in a civil lawsuit alleging he sexually abused a writer in a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s. In an 8-2 vote, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Trump’s petition for the full appellate court to rehear arguments in his challenge to the jury’s finding that he sexually abused advice columnist E. Jean Carroll and defamed her with comments he made in October 2022. Carroll testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly encounter in spring 1996 into a violent attack after they playfully entered the store’s dressing room. Trump denies the allegation.

A federal appeals court is set to hear arguments in Trump’s bid to erase his hush money conviction

June 10, 2025

President Donald Trump’s quest to erase his criminal conviction is heading to a federal appeals court. A three-judge panel in Manhattan is set to hear arguments Wednesday in the Republican’s long-running fight to get the New York case moved from state court to federal court. Trump is asking the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene after a lower-court judge twice rejected the move. If the case is transferred to federal court, he could then seek to have the verdict thrown out on presidential immunity grounds. It’s one way he’s trying to get last year’s hush money verdict overturned.

FILE - Luigi Mangione, accused of fatally shooting Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, appears in Manhattan state court in New York, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025. (Curtis Means/Pool Photo via AP, File

Suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing said he ‘had it coming,’ according to prosecutors

June 4, 2025

Six weeks before UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down outside a Manhattan hotel last December, Luigi Mangione mused about rebelling against “the deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel” and expressed that killing the executive “conveys a greedy bastard that had it coming.” Manhattan prosecutors revealed the comments in a court filing Wednesday. The Manhattan district attorney’s office quoted extensively from Mangione’s handwritten diary as they fight to uphold his state murder charges. Mangione’s lawyers want the state case thrown out, arguing that those charges and a parallel federal death penalty case amount to double jeopardy. The 27-year-old Mangione has pleaded not guilty in both cases. No trial dates have been set.

Michael R. Sisak.