Judge denies defense motion to declare Lindsay Clancy not guilty of murder

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took off on a flight to the International Space Station Thursday carrying two NASA astronauts, a cosmonaut and a Canadian crew member whose wife plans a launch of her own later this year, giving birth to the couple's third child while her husband is in space. Strapped into a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, Crew 13 commander Jessica Watkins, pilot Luke Delaney, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov and Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk blasted off from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11:10 a.m. EDT.

Rapper Rick Ross was arrested by Miami Beach police Thursday on felony battery by strangulation and misdemeanor battery charges involving domestic violence.

Attorney General Todd Blanche announced in July that President Trump had fired Roger Rogoff as the U.S. attorney in Seattle, less than an hour after he was sworn into the post.

Attorneys for Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike , who survived the state's attempt to execute her by lethal injection Wednesday night, are calling for her sentence to be commuted after she endured what they said was a "cruel," "torturous," and "predictable" botched execution . "The state of Tennessee has shown us again that they are not capable of carrying out an execution consistent with basic human dignity," attorney Randy Spivey told reporters Thursday during a news conference. "Last night was not just inefficient, it was cruel, and it was torturous. It was also predictable."