Prosecutors seek 15 years for former 'Cheer' star Harris

A prosecutor has asked a federal judge to sentence Jerry Harris, a former star of the Netflix documentary series “Cheer,” to 15 years in prison for coercing teenage boys to send him obscene photos and videos of themselves and soliciting sex from minors at cheerleading competitions. Attorneys for Harris are seeking a sentence of six years. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Guzman wrote in a sentencing memo late Wednesday that Harris used “his status as a competitive cheerleader, his social media persona, and eventually his celebrity and money, to persuade and entice his young victims to engage in sexually explicit conduct for him or with him.”

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  Prosecutors Seeking 15 Years For Former ‘Cheer’ Star Jerry Harris

  HuffPost
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  Former 'Cheer' star Jerry Harris should spend 15 years in prison in child sex abuse case, prosecutors say

  INSIDER

Pages from Brian Laundrie's notebook show he wrote 'I ended her life, I thought it was merciful'

Brian Laundrie's notebook appears to include a confession that he killed Gabby Petito. Laundrie also said he chose to kill himself because he couldn't "live another day without her." Brian Laundrie's notebook, recovered from a Florida swamp by the FBI, appears to include a confession that he was the one who killed Gabby Petito.

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  ‘I ended her life’: Brian Laundrie’s confession note revealed as he claimed he wanted to ‘take away’ Gabby Petito’s pain

  The Independent
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  Brian Laundrie’s Notebook Confession Floats Insane Mercy Killing Claim

  The Daily Beast

‘I felt something sharp.’ Woman takes off pants to uncover unwanted visitor in Florida

The “Oh No” song was the perfect soundtrack for a recent TikTok video. A Florida woman with the handle @uss_andrea went viral after showing her followers a common, albeit disturbing, occurrence in her home state. In the quick clip, she says in a voiceover: “I just took off my pants because I felt something sharp.

'Tongue-eating parasite' discovered in box of imported fish in Suffolk

A rare parasite that is usually found near the Mexican coast has been discovered in an imported box of fish in Suffolk. The cymothoa exigua – known as the 'tongue-eating louse' – found their way to the UK inside bodies of sea bream that arrived at the Port of Felixstowe. The Suffolk Coastal Port Health Authority (SCPHA), which provides essential health checks on food and animal-related imports, made the grim discovery inside a box before it was moved on – and sent it back to its country of origin.

Ultrawealthy Americans are flocking to get ‘golden visas’ in Europe amid political turmoil. Here are the top 2 places they’re going.

The pandemic has given Americans the Great Resignation, a housing market that won't stop appreciating and a used-car and gas price crisis amid 40-year-high inflation. Maybe the villas of Portugal or beaches of Greece would be more appealing—or at least warmer. As life in America becomes more stressful and expensive, U.S. citizens have been investing in a “Golden Visa,” a program in which purchasing a second home in a different country entitles buyers to a second passport or a pathway to citizenship.

Doctor told her sex was painful because of her age. It turned out to be ovarian cancer

Mara Kofoed, 45, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in December 2021 after months trying to figure out vague and seemingly unrelated symptoms. She found doctors dismissed them at every turn and didn't connect them to a tumor. It took a visit to an emergency room to finally get answers.

Wisconsin election investigator says he deleted records

The former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice hired to investigate President Joe Biden's victory in the battleground state testified Thursday that he routinely deleted records, and deactivated a personal email account, even after receiving open records requests. Michael Gableman testified in a court hearing about whether the person who hired him, Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, should face penalties after earlier being found in contempt for how he handled the records requests from American Oversight. Dane County Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn decided against penalizing Vos for contempt, but said she would determine later whether to penalize Vos for how he handled open records requests.

Asian US Navy veteran knocked out in LA Koreatown attack to press charges if assailant is caught

An Asian U.S. Navy veteran who lost consciousness after being sucker-punched in Los Angeles' Koreatown on Tuesday will press charges if his assailant is caught, NextShark has learned. The 32-year-old victim, who asked to be identified as Leo, was playing on his phone while waiting for a bus near a Chipotle in Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Avenue at around 1:45 p.m. when “this Black man with anger issues sucker-punched me,” he recalled in an Instagram post. Security footage seen by NextShark shows the moment the assailant struck Leo, who quickly hit the ground on his back.

Joe Manchin Says He ‘Trusted’ Neil Gorsuch And Brett Kavanaugh, Is Now Disappointed

I trusted Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh when they testified under oath that they also believed Roe v. Wade was settled legal precedent and I am alarmed they chose to reject the stability the ruling has provided for two generations of Americans,” Manchin said in a statement. At his confirmation hearing, Gorsuch described Roe as “a precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court” and said “a good judge will consider it as precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court worthy as treatment of precedent like any other.

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  Tech companies respond to US Supreme Court abortion decision

  TechCrunch
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  Supreme Court votes to overturn Roe v. Wade

  Yahoo Finance Video

The 'Mount Everest' of bacteria discovered in Caribbean swamps

The largest-known bacterium - a vermicelli-shaped organism that was discovered in shallow mangrove swamps in the Caribbean and is big enough to be seen with the naked eye - is redefining what is possible for bacteria, Earth's most ancient life form. Scientists said on Thursday the bacterium, called Thiomargarita magnifica, is noteworthy not merely for its size - colossal for a single-celled organism at up to about eight-tenths of an inch (2 cm) long - but also because its internal architecture is unlike other bacteria. The DNA, an organism's blueprint, is not free-floating inside the cell like in most bacteria but contained within numerous small membrane-bound sacs.

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  World's biggest bacterium found in Caribbean mangrove swamp

  Associated Press
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  Record bacterium discovered as long as human eyelash

  BBC

Louisiana woman posts viral TikTok video after citation for wearing shorts and crop top

A Winnfield, LA woman's TikTok video has gone viral after she took to the app to complain about an indecent exposure citation she received at a festival on Saturday, June 11. LaCaze-Lachney captioned the video "make it make sense" before showing viewers the outfit in question. LaCaze-Lachney is shown wearing a black t-shirt that covered her shoulders and was cropped just above the belly button, paired with cutoff denim shorts and a studded belt.

Odd balls appearing in Connecticut trees are actually alive. Here’s what will emerge

Something akin to Christmas balls are showing up in trees throughout Connecticut, and state officials are warning admirers the festive decorations are actually communities of wasps. The tan-colored globes are often referred to as “oak apple galls” and can easily be mistaken for fruit, according to Connecticut Fish and Wildlife. These little galls are some of the most amazing natural occurrences in our forests that are still not fully understood by scientists,” the department wrote in a June 23 Facebook post.

Cisco wins reversal of $2.75 billion damages award because judge's wife owned stock

(Reuters) -A U.S. appeals court on Thursday threw out a more than $2.75 billion award against Cisco Systems Inc, saying the trial judge should have disqualified himself after learning that his wife owned Cisco stock. The 3-0 decision by the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals was also a defeat for Centripetal Networks Inc, a Virginia company that had sued Cisco for damages and royalties for allegedly copying five cybersecurity patents. The trial judge, U.S. District Judge Henry Morgan in Norfolk, Virginia, found Cisco liable for patent infringement in October 2020, two months after learning that his wife owned 100 Cisco shares worth $4,688.

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  An appeals court reversed a $2.75B judgment against Cisco

  American City Business Journals
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  Cisco Wins Appeal of $1.9 Billion Patent-Infringement Judgment

  The Wall Street Journal

It’s a terrible day in America, and you can thank Kentucky’s own Mitch McConnell for it.

This morning, I set out to write a column that would give some credit to Sen. Mitch McConnell for FINALLY allowing some action to curb our insane gun violence. It was he who basically ushered the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, opening the floodgates to the tsunamis of money in politics that have corrupted our legislative process so completely. People who promised that Roe v. Wade was settled law, by the way.

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  Abortion ends in Kentucky as Supreme Court strikes down Roe v. Wade due to trigger law

  The Courier Journal
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  How Kentucky has chipped away at abortion since 1973 Supreme Court Roe vs Wade decision

  The Courier Journal

Baby’s remains were ‘thrown away’ before parents could bury their child, lawsuit says

A premature baby was born at a hospital in Massachusetts and died nearly two weeks later in her mother's hands following medical complications. As Alana Ross and Daniel McCarthy prepared to bury their daughter, Everleigh, who was born in Boston on July 25, 2020, they learned her remains were “thrown away” with linens from the morgue, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday, June 23, against Brigham and Women's Hospital. Prior to learning their daughter's remains were lost, a nurse had “promised and assured Daniel that Baby Everleigh's body would be safe for several days in the morgue,” according to court documents.

5-year-old trapped in pool for hours, TN rescuers say. ‘Please hurry and get me out’

A 5-year-old was at a neighborhood swimming pool when his hand got stuck in a jet, leaving him trapped for hours, officials said. Tennessee mom Lydia Johnston said she was in the water watching her kids when she suddenly heard her son scream. “It was very tough,” Johnston said, according to WTVF.

In Boebert's District, as Elsewhere, Democrats Surge into GOP Primary

Driven by fears of extremism and worries about what they see as an authoritarianism embodied in Boebert, thousands of Democrats in the sprawling 3rd Congressional District of Colorado have rushed to shore up her Republican challenger, state Sen. Don Coram. Their aim is not to do what best for Democrats but what they think is best for democracy. It is a long shot: Coram has raised about $226,000 in a late-starting, largely invisible bid to oust a national figure who has raked in $5 million.

Analysis-Russia's grinding battlefield gains seen driven by new tactics

It took Russia weeks of fierce fighting, an untold number of casualties, and relentless shelling before the exhausted Ukrainian defenders of Sievierodonetsk received orders to quit its smouldering wreckage. But its capture, if and when officially confirmed, is likely to be hailed by Russia as evidence that its switch from its early and unsuccessful attempts at "lightning warfare" to a much slower grinding offensive which relies more on long-range shelling rather than close-quarters combat, is paying off. Sievierodonetsk would be the biggest Ukrainian city Russia has captured since it took the port of Mariupol last month.

Biden accidentally flashed a cue card telling him exactly where to go and what to do at a White House event

Joe Biden accidentally revealed his cue card for a White House meeting, with very simple instructions. Cue cards are common, but right-wing commentators treated this one as a serious gaffe. President Joe Biden accidentally revealed a cue card at a White House meeting on Thursday, offering a glimpse of very simple instructions for the process of the meeting.

California Companies Moving to Texas Now Have to Make a Choice

Large companies have been moving their headquarters from places like California, Illinois, and New York to states with more relaxed regulatory regimes for years now. Elon Musk famously abandoned California for Texas last year when he moved Tesla's headquarters to Austin. In addition, Caterpillar just set plans to move from Illinois to Texas.

Ford eliminates end-of-lease purchase option for EVs

Over on the leasing side, Cars Direct discovered a letter Ford sent to dealers eliminating the end-of-lease purchase option for the F-150 Lightning, Mustang Mach-E, and E-Transit van. In the plainest language possible, Ford's new prohibition tells lessees, "you do not have the option to purchase the Vehicle at the end of the lease term." The change took effect on June 15 in 37 states and will be enacted in the remaining 14 states plus the District of Columbia by the last quarter of this year.

Stephen Colbert Names The 'Dumbest Person Ever To Sit In The United States Senate'

Stephen Colbert gave one U.S. lawmaker a scathing new distinction on Wednesday. “Most historians agree: Ron Johnson is the dumbest person ever to sit in the United States Senate,” Colbert declared on “The Late Show.” Newly revealed text messages showed the Wisconsin Republican's chief of staff tried to arrange a meeting in which Johnson would hand-deliver a slate of fake electors to then-Vice President Mike Pence.

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  'He's just a delivery boy': Ron Johnson gets scolding from Stephen Colbert over fake elector scheme

  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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  Stephen Colbert Flags Hilarious Text That 'Jumped Out' From Jan. 6 Hearing

  HuffPost

A record setter: Airbus Wichita engineer design sets paper airplane mark

The Air Capital of the World can lay claim to another aerospace record. Julian Chee, a design engineer at Airbus Americas Engineering, designed a paper airplane that in April was used in South Korea to set a record for the longest paper airplane flight in history. Chee's design flew 252 feet, breaking the previous best by 26 feet and gaining entry into the Guinness Book of World Records.