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According to Stacey Long Simmons, director of public policy and government affairs at the National LGBTQ Task Force, the dual arrest policy Benson describes is part of a larger problem in police protocol. "While we are unable to comment on the facts of [Johnson's] case, we find that local police departments still lack sufficient knowledge and cultural competency of LGBTQ couples and their families," Simmons wrote in an email to SI.com. "For example, in cases related to intimate partner violence involving same-sex couples, local officers still continue to arrest both parties."

BANGOR, Maine — City police have arrested a 34-year-old woman in connection with two stabbings at the Bangor Mall on Tuesday that sent two people to the hospital, Detective Sgt. David Bushey said Tuesday evening. Elizabeth Ellis, whom police describe as a transient, was charged with two counts of aggravated assault, Class B felonies that carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $20,000.

BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) -- A man was shot and killed by police after he allegedly approached them with a large knife in Roslindale on Tuesday morning. Police say the shooting happened near a CVS on Washington Street around 7 a.m. Law enforcement officials said Tuesday afternoon that they did not approach the man, 26-year-old Usaama Rahim, with their guns out, but that Rahim pulled out a large, military-style knife.

If only there had been some paper towels. Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard Law School professor known as a zealous civil liberties advocate, is suing TD Garden nearly three years after a slip and fall in an arena bathroom that he attributes to a depleted supply of paper towels near the sinks.

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A mother is in custody while her teen daughter was rushed to the hospital after an argument escalated Sunday afternoon, City of Miami Police said. “We received a 911 call from mom stating that her daughter had been stabbed,” said Miami Police Officer Kenia Fallat. That call led police to a home at NW 2nd St. and 60th Ave. As it turns out, investigators determined it was the 47-year-old Odalys Rodriguez who had stabbed her 18-year-old daughter.

TAMPA — Did Tampa’s no-snitch culture cost another young teenager his life? Edward Harris III thinks so. He says his son, 14-year-old Edward Harris IV, witnessed a stabbing last year and cooperated with police. A few months later, somebody shot at him five times but missed. Late Sunday afternoon, Edward Harris IV was killed in a driveby shooting on the north side of Woodland Terrace Park. Tampa police said the shooting did not appear to be a random act but stopped short of saying the motive for the homicide was retaliation in a part of Tampa where talking to police...

Featuring a mix of Rock hits and marijuana themed programming, KBUD will also air the syndicated Bubba The Love Sponge in mornings. The station is focusing on the niche of weed smokers in the first state to legalize marijuana, just like the short-lived on-air version of “K-High” in Colorado Springs.

A reference to the gun violence that has left parts of Chicago feeling like a war zone to many residents, the word is believed to have been coined by local rappers years ago. But it is taking on another life as the working title of a new Spike Lee movie that is expected to be filmed here this summer. Local politicians have lined up against the title. Mr. Lee has been confronted by Chicago’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, who told him in a meeting last month that he was “not happy” about the name.

A man was killed and at least 13 others, including a 2-year-old girl, were injured in shootings across Chicago since Thursday evening, police said. Police said the 2-year-old girl was wounded around 10:30 p.m. in the 6200 block of South Honore Street in the city's Englewood neighborhood when shots were fired, striking a group of people on a sidewalk.

FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA, MAY 25: I want to urge you to actively seek out the most contentious, polarized, gridlocked places you can find, because so often throughout our history, those have been the places where progress really happens. Climate change, economic inequality, human rights, criminal justice -- these are the revolutions of your time. And you have as much responsibility and just as much power to wake up and play your part in our great American story. OBAMA, MAY 9: But as potentially the first African-American first lady, I was also the focus of another set of questions and...

LYNDHURST (WABC) -- A police-involved shooting at the Lyndhurst Public Library in New Jersey left one person dead Friday. The officers involved were transported to the hospital for trauma, but were not physically injured. Officials say the building also houses the police department, fire department and courthouse, which is why the response was so quick. "There was nothing else they could have done," said Chief James O'Connor, Lyndhurst Police Department.

Two gunmen who traded shots at a Bronx basketball tournament​, with one of the bullets killing a 4-year-old boy​, ​were sentenced to lengthy jail terms ​Tuesday ​on what would have been the victim’s seventh birthday. Rondell Pinkerton,​ ​20, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in April, was sentenced to 20 years in prison plus five years of supervised release.

An Idaho woman who was having an affair orchestrated a gruesome Las Vegas hatchet attack that left her husband dead with his head nearly severed while they were on a family trip on Memorial Day, police said. Police identified the victim as Enrique Hernandez, 43, who had chop wounds on his neck, head and right leg.

NEWARK — Mayor Ras Baraka has penned a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and other Cabinet members, asking them to immediately stop the expansion of Middle East-based airlines into domestic markets which he says could threaten the city's airport and economy. The missive, also addressed to Transportation Secretary Anthony R. Foxx and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, said carriers are subsidized by their governments and could cut into markets carved out by domestic outfits such as United Airlines, which provides thousands of jobs to Newark-area residents.

CHICAGO (CBS) — Nine people were killed and at least 31 others—including a 4-year-old girl—have been wounded in shootings across Chicago this Memorial Day weekend, police said. The 4-year-old, identified by her family as Jacele Johnson, was shot about 8 p.m. Friday in the West Englewood neighborhood.

A Brooklyn teacher who was arrested in 2011 on charges of drugging and raping a middle school student is demanding that the city let her keep her teaching job, according to a new lawsuit. Claudia Tillery, 45, argues in papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court that she was acquitted of all criminal charges in April 2014 and the Department of Education’s hearing officer improperly used sealed evidence, DNA tests and the prosecutor’s testimony to toss her from the teaching post she's had since 1996.

Parents of a sixth-grader at a public charter school in North Las Vegas want an apology after they say a teacher barred their daughter from using a Bible verse in an assignment. Nonprofit legal group Liberty Institute, representing Tim and Kate Frasier, sent a letter Wednesday containing their demand for the apology to the Somerset Academy's Losee campus. The Fraisers said their daughter Mackenzie was told she couldn't use the Bible verse John 3:16 for a technology class assignment called "All About Me" that involved creating a PowerPoint presentation and including an inspirational saying on a slide.

More than 17 months before Election Day, Clinton scandals are piling up faster than robberies during a police strike. There is a media feeding frenzy over her shady dealings and the sheer volume of unsavory revelations is approaching a critical mass. The pace of disclosures probably can’t continue, but already she’s looking less and less inevitable.

A historic player is going home. Derrick Gordon, who is from New Jersey, announced Sunday, on Twitter, he's decided to finish his college hoops career at Seton Hall. It will be Gordon's third school; he began at Western Kentucky, then spent the past three years at UMass. Gordon announced his intentions to transfer in late March. His move is notable because he became the first openly gay player in men's Division I hoops when he came out in the spring of 2014.

For years, Sharon High School parents had help finding their sons and daughters among the sea of gowns on graduation day: boys all sported deep maroon, while girls wore pristine white. But last year, students approached principal Jose Libano with a proposal: end the tradition, which alienated some students. Now, all graduates wear maroon. Around the region, longstanding customs of assigning graduation colors by sex are giving way to new realities, driven by transgender student activists and supportive educators and classmates of all stripes. The change reflects a growing awareness that simple categories of male and female do not fit...