U.S.Associated PressProsecutors 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.”
U.S.Business InsiderGinni Thomas left a voicemail for Anita Hill asking her to apologize for accusing Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment
Ginni Thomas left a voicemail for Anita Hill asking her to apologize for accusing her husband of sexual harassment. The voicemail came in 2010, nearly 20 years after Thomas' Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Thomas described the call to The New York Times as a "peacekeeping" attempt; Hill called it "inappropriate."
BusinessMotley FoolSocial Security Checks Could Soar in 2023: Here's How Much Extra Seniors Might Receive
For better or worse, Social Security is our nation's most vital social program. A recent survey from national pollster Gallup found that 84% of nonretirees plan to lean on Social Security as a "major" or "minor" source of income when retired. Considering how important the program is to the financial well-being of tens of millions of currently retired Americans, there's perhaps no announcement more universally awaited than Social Security's annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA).
PoliticsYahoo TVTrump supporters faced with facts from Jan. 6 hearings struggle to accept the truth
When former President Donald Trump's American Freedom Tour pulled into Mississippi last week, The Daily Show's Jordan Klepper tagged along. On Thursday's show, Klepper shared some of the conversations he had with attendees regarding the ongoing January 6 House select committee hearings. Attendees were shown video testimonies from the former president's closest allies and family, but many refused to accept the information being presented to them.
U.S.INSIDERSupreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas told his law clerks in the '90s that he wanted to serve for 43 years to make liberals' lives 'miserable'
In a 1993 New York Times article, a former law clerk of Clarence Thomas said he held a grudge against liberals. The conservative Supreme Court Justice was resentful of the media coverage of his confirmation hearing. "The liberals made my life miserable ... and I'm going to make their lives miserable," NYT reported he said.
U.S.Miami Herald‘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.
U.S.Associated PressSenator in 2010 deposition: 13-year-olds can consent to sex
Before he became a leading voice for conservative causes on Capitol Hill, U.S. Senator James Lankford spent more than a decade as the director of youth programming at the Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center, a sprawling campground about 80 miles south of Oklahoma City that attracts more than 50,000 campers in grades six through 12 each year. In 2009, while Lankford worked at the camp, the family of a 13-year-old girl sued a 15-year-old boy who was alleged to have had sex with her at the camp. Lankford, who was not in Congress at the time, is not alleged to have had any direct knowledge of the alleged assault, has not been accused of any wrongdoing and was not a defendant in the lawsuit, which was settled for an undisclosed amount before it was scheduled to go to trial.
U.S.Shreveport Times | The TimesLouisiana 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.
U.S.The Daily BeastLauren Boebert Baffled by ‘Bricks’ Belonging to a Construction Site
Right-wing media has long been convinced any pallets of bricks are solely the property of anti-fascist activists. “Permit's name: CAPITOL PAVING OF D.C., INC,” read one sign noting that parking near the construction site would be prohibited till the end of the month. As of Saturday afternoon, a crew of construction workers had covered the bricks with tarps and began pouring concrete in the back ally.
PoliticsYahoo TVFilmmaker who documented Trump family says Jan. 6 committee is focusing on Ivanka Trump's inconsistent statements
British filmmaker Alex Holder sat down with Don Lemon Tonight on Thursday, where he spoke about testifying before the January 6 House select committee earlier in the day. Unbeknownst to apparently quite a few White House staffers, Holder and his crew spent months with the Trump family, including interviews, from before the 2020 election, through the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. In it, Ivanka Trump is seen telling Holder that former President Trump should continue to fight the election results.
PoliticsHuffPostAngry Trump Again Demands The Impossible From Jan. 6 Panel After Riveting Hearing
Former President Donald Trump's reaction Thursday to another powerful day of testimony before the House select committee investigating the U.S. Capitol riot was to again demand the impossible: evidence of a rigged presidential election. Trump appears to be ignoring the information in the hearings the same way he ignored responses from his Justice Department, various state officials and U.S. Attorney General William Barr: The claims of a rigged election were baseless. Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) testified Tuesday that Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani asked him to hold up electoral votes because “200,000 illegal immigrants” and more than 5,000 “dead people” voted in the state.
U.S.Lexington Herald-LeaderIt’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.
WorldReutersFilipina wins transgender pageant in Thailand
Filipina Fuschia Anne Ravena was crowned Miss International Queen 2022 on Saturday at a contest in Thailand billed as the world's largest and most popular transgender pageant. "My first message to everyone is to spread love and peace and unity because that is the most important thing that we do as of the moment and what's happening in the world right now," said Ravena who wore a glittery-silver evening gown. The pageant, which was halted for almost two years because of the pandemic, resumed in the Thai seaside town of Pattaya during Pride Month to also celebrate gender equality, said Alisa Phanthusak, the CEO of Miss Tiffany Show, the organiser.
U.S.Miami HeraldOdd 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.
- U.S.Oxygen
Footage Shows Dad Of Murdered Toddler Pummeling Alleged Killer In Court
The Ohio father of a murdered toddler punched the boy's alleged killer, who also stands accused of killing the child's mother, in a dramatic courtroom attack. Footage captured Tonio Hughes ambushing Desean Brown, 22, in court on Thursday morning during a pretrial hearing for the alleged killer, Fox 19 reports. Brown will face trial for the 2020 stabbing death of his girlfriend Nyteisha Lattimore, 29, and the murder of her 3-year-old son Nylo Lattimore.
WorldReutersPro-life is not just opposing abortion, Vatican says after U.S. ruling
Anti-abortion activists should be concerned with other issues that can threaten life, such as easy access to guns, poverty and rising maternity mortality rates, the Vatican's editorial director said on Saturday. In a media editorial on the United States Supreme Court's ruling to end the constitutional right to abortion, Andrea Tornielli said those who oppose abortion could not pick and choose pro-life issues. "Being for life, always, for example, means being concerned if the mortality rates of women due to motherhood increase," he wrote.
BusinessFortuneUltrawealthy 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.
- PoliticsYahoo Entertainment
Trump supporters befuddled when confronted by facts from Jan. 6 hearings
Attendees were shown testimonies from witnesses, but many were unable to accept the information being presented to them. For example, one gentleman was shown a video of Ivanka Trump testifying that she believed Attorney General William Barr's assertion that no voter fraud was committed in the 2000 election. I respect Attorney General Barr,” Trump had said, “So I accepted what he was saying.
PoliticsAssociated Press'Mitt Romney Republican' is now a potent GOP primary attack
But Trump-aligned Republicans hostile toward the Utah senator have made his name a recurring theme in this year's primaries, using him as a foil and derisively branding their rivals “Mitt Romney Republicans." Republicans have used the concept to frame their primary opponents as enemies of the Trump-era GOP in southeast Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The anti-tax group Club For Growth, among the most active super PACs in this year's primaries, used “Mitt Romney Republican” as the central premise of an attack ad in North Carolina's Senate primary.
U.S.HuffPostSamuel Jackson Rips 'Uncle Clarence' Thomas For Risking Interracial Marriage In Roe Reversal
Actor Samuel Jackson slammed Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as “Uncle Clarence” for jeopardizing the legal right to interracial marriage with the court's decision Friday to overturn of Roe v. Wade. The same rationale the conservative court employed to reverse the 1973 decision on abortion rights could now be used to eliminate the right to same-sex marriage, contraception and interracial marriage, which was protected in the 1967 Loving v. Virginia ruling, lawmakers and scholars fear. Jackson bashed Thomas as “Uncle Clarence” in a Friday night tweet, referring to the excessively servile Black character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's pre-Civil War novel “Uncle Tom's Cabin.”
PoliticsBusiness InsiderBiden 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.
WorldReutersAnalysis-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.
WorldINSIDERA 78-year-old woman asked a street cleaner for directions — and ended up reuniting with her long-lost daughter
Cai Youxiu had not seen her daughter Hu Jun in 24 years since Hu moved to another province for work. When a 78-year-old woman asked a street cleaner for directions, she did not expect that the person would be her long-lost daughter whom she had not seen in 24 years. The older woman, Cai Youxiu, had recently managed to trace her daughter, Hu Jun, to Langzhong city with the help of the police, the outlet reported.
U.S.HuffPostPaddleboard Duo Rescues Swimmer Attacked By Great White Shark Off California Beach
Two paddleboarders and a surfer came to the rescue of a swimmer at a Central Coast beach in California after hearing his panicked cries for help while he was being attacked by a great white shark. Bandy, a police officer, was paddleboarding with his wife, who's a nurse, when they heard the swimmer's screams Wednesday at the popular Lovers Point Beach in Pacific Grove, just south of Monterey. The swimmer, Steven Bruemmer, 62, a member of a swim club that often uses the beach, had bites to his leg and torso.
- WorldReuters
Nigerian couple charged with plotting to get child to UK to harvest organs
A Nigerian senator and his wife were remanded in custody in London on Thursday charged with plotting to have a 15-year-old boy brought into the United Kingdom to harvest his organs, the BBC and police said. Ike Ekweremadu, 60, and Beatrice Nwanneka Ekweremadu, 55, were both charged with conspiracy to arrange travel of another person with a view to exploitation, namely organ harvesting, police said. Police said they had been alerted to the alleged plan following reports made of possible offences under modern slavery legislation.
“More than half of mass shooters exhibited clear warning signs before committing their crimes, which makes such laws worthwhile.”
“It’s very difficult to determine if a person with no obvious criminal or mental illness history poses such a threat.”
“We will not end mass shootings, but smart public policy can reduce them.”
"A wider net is bound to ensnare many people who do not actually pose a threat.”
“They may also further dissuade gun owners from seeking mental health treatment if they fear their guns could be seized.”