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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  Feds seek 15-year prison term for former "Cheer" star Jerry Harris in sex crimes case

  CBS-Chicago

A 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.

Tucker Carlson says corporations are helping their employees get an out-of-state abortion because those 'without families are much cheaper for the company'

Tucker Carlson on Friday said corporations that help their employees secure abortions are "against families." Several US companies offered to pay travel costs for employees seeking an abortion out of state. "Well, of course, employees without families are much cheaper for the company," Carlson said.

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  Factbox-Companies offering abortion travel benefits to U.S. workers

  Reuters
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  These companies will cover abortion travel costs for employees

  The Hill

Senator 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.

Lauren Boebert Baffled by ‘Bricks’ Belonging to a Construction Site

CapitolPolice why are there 20 pallets of bricks one block from the House Office Buildings? Boebert tweeted, apparently alluding to the standard bricks the right believes are owned by potential antifa activists. Yet as it turned out, the bricks are part of an ongoing construction project on First Street in Washington D.C., according to signs right next to the pallets.

Social 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).

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

‘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.

Japanese man loses USB drive containing personal info of 460,000 residents after drunken night out

Following a night out drinking and passing out on the street, a Japanese man woke up to find that his bag containing two USB sticks with the personal information of nearly half a million residents went missing. On Tuesday evening, the unnamed man, said to be in his 40s, spent several hours drinking at a local restaurant in Suita of northern Osaka, Japan, shortly before passing out on the street. When the man regained consciousness, he found that his bag and USB sticks were missing, reported NHK per BBC.

'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.

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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  How Mitch McConnell helped engineer the fall of Roe v. Wade and cement his abortion legacy

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

  The Courier Journal

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.

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.

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.

Explainer-What charges could Trump face over efforts to overturn the 2020 election?

The president's efforts likely violated a federal law making it illegal to "corruptly" obstruct any official proceeding, or attempt to do so, said Andrew Carter, the California federal judge overseeing the case. "The pressure on Pence alone is enough" for prosecutors to prove Trump obstructed the proceeding, said Barbara McQuade, a law professor at the University of Michigan and a former federal prosecutor. CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD THE UNITED STATES The committee submitted the court filing as part of its effort to force Trump adviser John Eastman to hand over documents.

Angry 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.

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  Jan. 6 hearing: Key takeaways from Thursday's hearing featuring former DOJ officials

  Yahoo News
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  Trump pressured DOJ, DHS to seize voting machines: Jan. 6 hearing testimony

  Yahoo News Video

Fauci says he's 'example' for COVID-19 vaccinations

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, says his COVID-19 recovery is an “example” for the nation on the protection offered by vaccines and boosters. Speaking during a White House briefing, Fauci, 81, said he began experiencing virus symptoms on June 14 and tested positive a day later. “I'm still feeling really quite fine,” Fauci said Thursday, as the administration emphasized the protection offered by vaccines to people of all ages, after the U.S. became the first country in the world to extend vaccine eligibility to children as young as six months.

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  Fauci says his own experience with Covid is a great reason to get vaccinated

  The Independent
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  Dr. Fauci’s COVID case was ‘mild’ thanks to being vaccinated and double-boosted, he says

  MarketWatch

Obergefell, the plaintiff in the SCOTUS same-sex marriage ruling, said it's 'quite telling' Clarence Thomas omitted the case that legalized interracial marriage after saying the courts should go after other right to privacy cases

The Supreme Court on Friday overturned abortion rights established by Roe v. Wade. Clarence Thomas said the court should "reconsider" rulings on same-sex marriage and relationships. Jim Obergefell said Thomas omitted rulings on interracial marriage because it "affects him personally."

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  Harris warns other rights could be in jeopardy after SCOTUS abortion ruling

  Yahoo News Video
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  What the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling means on a state level

  Yahoo Finance Video

NASA: Give us back our moon dust and cockroaches

NASA wants its moon dust and cockroaches back. The space agency has asked Boston-based RR Auction to halt the sale of moon dust collected during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission that had subsequently been fed to cockroaches during an experiment to determine if the lunar rock contained any sort of pathogen that posed a threat to terrestrial life. The material, a NASA lawyer said in a letter to the auctioneer, still belongs to the federal government.

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.

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.

Maria Shriver, a Catholic, calls out overturning of Roe v. Wade: 'This is about controlling women'

The former first lady of California, who identifies as Catholic, took to Twitter after the Supreme Court ruling to share her thoughts. In a series of tweets, she began, "I'm heartbroken by this decision. It makes millions of women unsafe, unseen, unprotected as we now are.