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

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).

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.

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.

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

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.

Pro-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.

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  Vatican praises U.S. court abortion decision, saying it challenges world

  Reuters
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  CA abortion rights activists organize after ruling

  Associated Press Videos

‘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.

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

'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.

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.

Arizona House Speaker Clarifies Statement That He’d Vote Trump Over Biden in 2024: ‘It’s Like a Sophie’s Choice’

Republican Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers has clarified his claim that he would vote for Donald Trump again in 2024, despite testifying to the Jan 6. Bowers was the star witness during Tuesday's committee hearing, when he said that the Trump administration pressured him adopt the administration's claims of 2020 election fraud in Arizona and appoint fake electors who would vote for Trump instead of adhering to the popular vote. Bowers claims he refused to do so, subjecting himself to harassment and ridicule from Trump supporters.

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  Arizona election chief says he’d still vote for Trump even after the former president asked him to overturn election

  The Independent
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  Seth Meyers Drags Arizona House Speaker for Saying He’d Vote for Trump Again: ‘Are You Addicted to Testifying?’ (Video)

  The Wrap

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Ron Johnson now says he helped coordinate effort to pass false elector slates to Pence, but his new explanation drew a quick rebuke

After initially claiming to be "basically unaware" of an effort by his staff to get fake presidential elector documents to Vice President Mike Pence, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said Thursday he coordinated with a Wisconsin attorney to pass along such information and alleged a Pennsylvania congressman brought slates of fake electors to his office — a claim that was immediately disputed. Evidence presented this week by the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol showed Johnson's chief of staff tried to deliver the two states' lists of fake presidential electors for former President Donald Trump to Pence on the morning of the U.S. Capitol insurrection but was rebuffed by Pence's aide.

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  Johnson now says he helped coordinate effort to get false slates to Pence as Jan. 6 hearing continues

  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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  GOP Sen. Ron Johnson says the fake electors he tried to give Pence on January 6 came from GOP Rep. Mike Kelly

  INSIDER

Man who attacked Filipino family in North Hollywood drive-thru arrested, charged with hate crimes

The man who reportedly harassed and attacked a Filipino family at a McDonald's drive-thru in North Hollywood last month has been arrested and charged with hate crime enhancements. Nicholas Weber, 31, was arrested in Orange County at around 7:40 p.m. on June 16, Costa Mesa Police Department spokesperson Roxi Fyad said in a statement. Authorities reportedly received a call about a man “possibly passed out on the sidewalk” and later identified him as Weber.

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.