The United States passed the 2o million mark for COVID-19 cases on Friday, but some people apparently think the pandemic is over. In Florida, which is in the midst of a second surge, huge crowds milled in the streets and packed into bars and restaurants to ring in the New Year. “We are not surprised that everything is open but there is no social distancing at […]
Tracy Connor
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Congressman-elect Luke Letlow, a Republican from Louisiana, has died of COVID-19 at the age of 41. The married father of two young children lost his battle with the illness just two days after his wife, Julia, issued a statement on social media saying he was in stable condition in the ICU. “The doctors have told us the road to recovery and the length of time is […]
A 37-year-old member of the military from Florida has been charged with the random shooting at an Illinois bowling alley that left three men dead and three people injured. Prosecutors said Duke Webb, who was arrested at the scene, has been charged with three counts of murder and three counts of first-degree attempted murder. “We believe this is a completely random act,” Rockford Police Chief Dan […]
Three decades after 9-year-old Michaela Garecht was kidnapped off a California street in broad daylight, police say they have matched a palm print left on her scooter to her killer—a man who has been in prison nearly as long for three other murders. The breakthrough, which investigators say was made possible by new technology for print comparison, was announced Monday at a press conference where Hayward […]
The owner of a charter-jet company has been charged with sex trafficking after being caught in a sting operation offering sex with a 12-year-old girl and 14-year-old girl for $300, authorities say. On LinkedIn, Paul Alexander was the high-flying CEO of Central Jet Charter—but before he launched the company, he was a two-time felon with convictions for sex assault and child pornography. In March, an underage […]
A federal appeals court has shot down the Trump campaign’s attempt to overturn the election result in Pennsylvania—with a judge appointed by the president writing the scathing decision. “Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” 3rd U.S. Circuit […]
The University of Iowa has suspended one its fraternities amid allegations of inhumane hazing practices. An investigative report about the goings-on at the Acacia frat house boggles the mind and is filled with references to dildos, Jungle Juice, vomit, and a “pet” cinder block named Rodney. The report was obtained by the Cedar Rapids Gazette, which reports that alarms were raised by former members about the […]
The CEO of a Midwest hospital system is out of a job days after he sent a bizarre letter to employees in which he said he would not be wearing a mask because he believed he was immune after contracting COVID-19. Kelby Krabbenhoft, who is not a doctor, had headed Sanford Health since 1996. Just a a few weeks ago, after the announcement of a merger […]
An Omaha man who was arrested last week at a Sonic Drive-In for charging $57 worth of corn dogs to someone else’s app has been accused of shooting up the fast-food joint on Saturday night, killing two and wounding two people. Roberto Silva Jr., 23, was also charged with arson for setting a vehicle on fire—but he didn’t seem too upset about it. A booking photo […]
An active-duty Marine assigned to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina has been charged in an illegal firearms conspiracy—which prosecutors allege was run by a cabal of neo-Nazi ex-military men who wanted to create a “modern day SS.” The evidence includes a sickening video of live-fire weapons training that ended with the masked participants giving “Heil Hitler” salutes before a slide with the message: “Come home white […]
The health officer for Spokane, Washington, was officially fired on Thursday night despite an extraordinary outpouring of public support from medical professionals, school officials, and activists who were shocked he would be canned in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. A hundred new COVID-19 cases were recorded Thursday in the health district, where the positivity rate is now flirting with 3 percent and hospitalizations are also […]
A tweet from the Washington State Department of Agriculture said it all: “Got ’em.” After an operation that looked like a cross between a lunar landing and a low-budget sci-fi flick, entomologists on Saturday eradicated the first “murder hornet” nest found in the United States. Garbed in bulky protective white suits from head to toe—meant to keep the insects’ long stingers away from their skin and […]
Kansas police are hunting for a man they say abducted his two young daughters from a home where two boys were found dead. Donny Jackson, 40, is believed to be driving a black Honda accord, according to an Amber Alert that was issued Saturday. It’s not known what direction he was traveling. Authorities said that shortly after 1 p.m., they received a call from a home […]
Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia’s wife has tested positive for COVID-19—becoming at least the 13th person who attended a largely mask-free White House Rose Garden event to contract the coronavirus. Trish Scalia was seated next to Kellyanne Conway and right behind Melania Trump at the Sept. 26 ceremony to announce President Donald Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court. Conway and the first […]
The Trump-loving political gadfly who led ugly protests against new COVID-19 restrictions in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood was arrested by the NYPD on Sunday night. Harold “Heshy” Tischler was will be charged with inciting a riot and unlawful imprisonment in connection with a mob’s attack on a journalist covering the demonstrations last week, police said. Tischler, an inflammatory figure who uses social media to spread his […]
The U.S. Senate race in North Carolina has been thrown into turmoil: The incumbent, Thom Tillis, has COVID-19 and his opponent, Cal Cunningham, has been caught sending extramarital texts. The Democrat’s romantic messages to public relations strategist Arlene Guzman Todd were initially exposed by the National File, a right-wing website. But in a statement to the Raleigh News & Observer, Cunningham confirmed their accuracy. “I have […]
Contact tracing for the Trumpworld COVID-19 outbreak is still in the early stages, but seven of those who have tested positive were at a packed event in the White House Rose Garden last weekend. Most in the crowd—invited to see President Trump nominate Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court—were not wearing masks even though chairs were placed close together. Photos showed guests milling around and […]
A Kansas man returned home from work on Friday evening with his 10-year-old to find that his wife and four other kids had not yet returned from a trip to buy groceries as expected. Soon after, he got a call from a friend about a terrible car crash near the house and rushed to the scene, where he learned his family’s car had collided with a […]
This story contains graphic details that may be disturbing. A New Hampshire man who found out his wife was having an affair murdered the lover and then forced her to decapitate the body, authorities alleged on Friday. The macabre account was contained in the arrest warrant for Armando Barron, 30, and Britany Barron, 31, who are charged in the death of 25-year-old Jonathan Amerault. The wife […]
Military helicopters rescued dozens of people—some of them burned—who were trapped by a northern California wildfire that devoured 36,000 acres in one day. More than 150 people were stranded Saturday around the Mammoth Pool Reservoir in the Sierra National Forest, where the Creek Fire continued to rage out of control. “We’re in the truck. The air is so black, we can’t open our eyes without it […]
Anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson told the Republican National Convention an exceedingly graphic story of helping to terminate a pregnancy as a Planned Parenthood employee—an account that has been challenged numerous times. The speech contained the kind of shock imagery embraced by some in the anti-abortion movement, with details that painted her former co-workers as heartless money-grubbers. She made reference to a “pieces of children” room and […]
An Arkansas nurse who vanished while jogging was abducted, raped, and buried, police said during a court hearing Monday for the farmer charged with her murder. Quake Lewellyn, 28, a third-generation farmer, was silent as he walked up the steps to the courthouse in Jackson County. But authorities say he confessed when they questioned him in the disappearance of Sydney Sutherland. According to pool reporters in […]
Video surfaced Sunday night of police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, shooting a Black man in the back at close range as he got into a car following what they called a “domestic dispute.” Witnesses told the Kenosha News that the man, later identified as Jacob Blake, had just tried to break up a fight between two women. Video posted online shows him walking to a car, trailed […]
When Michelle Obama’s stylist called Chari Cuthbert a few weeks ago to order a custom necklace with charms spelling out the word VOTE, the designer was overjoyed. “But we had no idea where she was going to wear it,” Cuthbert told The Daily Beast. “We just knew that she wanted it.” It wasn’t until Monday afternoon that Cuthbert learned that the former first lady was wearing […]
It’s safe to say that Samuel Trelawney Hughes did not handle rejection well. The 31-year-old British-born California resident was indicted Tuesday on charges that he used fake identities to terrorize women he met at networking events or at work who were not interested in meeting with him again. The threatening messages the IT worker allegedly sent the victims by email, text, and the postal service were […]
A motorist who shot and killed a rifle-toting protester, and another protester who then fired on the motorist, were both released from custody Sunday as police in Austin, Texas, worked to piece together the deadly chaos. Garrett Foster, 28, was mortally wounded as gunfire rang out during the Black Lives Matter march on Saturday night. Police nearby tried to resuscitate him but he died at the […]
A gunman—reportedly dressed as a FedEx delivery person—showed up on the doorstep of a federal judge in New Jersey on Sunday night and shot her husband and their son. NBC New York reports that U.S. District Judge Esther Salas was in the basement of the North Brunswick home during the ambush and was unharmed. Her husband, criminal defense lawyer Mark Anderl, 63, and son David, 20, […]
Mary Kay Letourneau—who gained tabloid infamy for raping her 12-year-old former student, having children with him, and later marrying him—has died of cancer, her attorneys said. The 58-year-old split from husband Vili Fualaau, now 36, more than a year ago. It was not publicly known that she was ill. “Expected but sad anyway,” her attorney David Gehrke, told TV station KOMO. “She was a good person.” […]
Police used cellphone pings to find the remains of doomsday mom Lori Vallow’s missing children in her husband’s Idaho backyard—her teenage daughter dismembered and burned, and her 6-year-old autistic son wrapped in plastic and duct tape. The grisly details were contained in a probable cause affidavit unsealed a week after Vallow’s husband Chad Daybell was arrested on charges of concealing evidence. Vallow herself was already in […]
For almost 30 years, Florida police have been vexed by the unsolved murder of a teenage hitchhiker known only as Valentine Jane Doe—because she was raped and murdered on Feb. 14. But now investigators say DNA has helped them answer the two central questions in the mystery: Who was the young woman found dead in the Florida Keys in 1991, and who strangled her with her […]
Law enforcement officers are executing a search warrant Tuesday on the home of Chad Daybell, the doomsday author whose first wife died under mysterious circumstances and whose second wife has refused to cooperate with the investigation into her two missing children. The Rexburg, Idaho, Police Department said the FBI is assisting in the search. Details about what police are looking for have not been released because […]
A Canadian man was fished out of the Detroit River on Friday—unconscious and tied to two bundles that contained more than 250 pounds of marijuana. It didn’t take officials long to figure out who he was: He had been arrested a month earlier, admitted he used a submarine to smuggle drugs between Canada and the U.S., and agreed to work for the feds. That’s according to […]
A video of Buffalo police officers shoving an elderly police activist to the ground, then walking by him as a pool of blood collected around his head, shocked the nation. Their colleagues? Not so much. All members of the Emergency Response Team resigned from the unit on Friday in support of the officers who were suspended without pay for their aggression toward Martin Gugino, 75. “Fifty-seven […]