White House, TN

Washington, DC

Chantilly, VA

The Associated Press

A former government employee has been charged with repeatedly submitting fake tips to the FBI reporting that several of his co-workers in the intelligence community were part of a mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to court filings unsealed Friday. Miguel Eugenio Zapata, 37, was arrested in Chantilly, Virginia, on Thursday on a charge that he made false statements to law enforcement. Zapata submitted at least seven anonymous tips to the FBI’s website claiming that seven government employees and contractors were involved in the Capitol riot, according to an FBI task force officer’s affidavit. Court records don’t identify which government agency employed Zapata, but the affidavit says the Chantilly resident previously worked with all seven people named in his false tips to the FBI. One of them had hired Zapata and served as his program manager.

Ex-government employee charged with falsely accusing co-workers of joining Capitol riot

Wisconsin State

Mount Horeb, WI

MOUNT HOREB, Wis. (AP) — A student who was killed by police outside a Wisconsin school pointed a pellet rifle at officers and had refused to drop the weapon, authorities said Saturday. The state Department of Justice released few other details, three days after the shooting at Mount Horeb Middle School in Mount Horeb, 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Madison, the Wisconsin capital. The student, whose name and age still have not been officially released, did not get into the school. No one else was physically injured, but the school was on lockdown for hours during the incident Wednesday.  Police were called around 11 a.m. that day after a caller said someone with a backpack and long gun was moving toward the school.

Investigators say student killed by police outside Wisconsin school had pointed pellet rifle

Virginia State

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Wytheville, VA

Cheryl E Preston

Narcan ( Naloxone)is a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose and restores normal breathing. Law enforcement in Wytheville, Virginia, is warning state residents that a horse tranquilizer used in a drug cocktail does not respond to Narcan.

A horse tranquilizer mixed with fentanyl does not respond to Narcan and puts Virginia youth at risk

Orlando, FL

Jim O’Rear

Former First Lady Melania Trump hosted the Log Cabin Republicans, an LGBT group, for a fundraising event at Mar-a-Lago in South Florida, at which Mrs. Trump was the guest of honor and addressed the room. The event was held on Saturday, the day after the jury was impaneled for former President Donald J. Trump’s hush-money trial in New York.

Melania Trump Hosts Fundraiser With Gay Organization In Florida.

Arizona State

Orange, CA

NewSantaAna

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A 33-year-old Phoenix man has been convicted of murdering four men in a failed attempt to take over the drug business that left three of the men shot to death, their bodies set on fire inside of a burning car left abandoned in a residential neighborhood in Orange in the middle of the day in 2015. The body of a fourth man was found inside of a car in Fontana six days after he was shot to death; his killers recorded his dying moments on a cell phone, according to the OCDA .

Phoenix man convicted of killing and burning four cartel drug dealers in Orange and in Fontana

Alexandria, VA

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A judge declared a mistrial Thursday after a jury said it was deadlocked and could not reach a verdict in the trial of a military contractor accused of contributing to the abuse of detainees at the Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq two decades ago. The mistrial came in the jury’s eighth day of deliberations. The deliberations went far longer than the trial itself. The eight-member civil jury in Alexandria deadlocked on accusations the civilian interrogators who were supplied to the U.S. Army at Abu Ghraib in 2003 and 2004 had conspired with soldiers there to abuse detainees as a means of “softening them up” for questioning. The trial was the first time a U.S. jury heard claims brought by Abu Ghraib survivors in the 20 years since photos of detainee mistreatment — accompanied by smiling U.S. soldiers inflicting the abuse — shocked the world during the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Judge declares mistrial after jury deadlocks in lawsuit filed by former Abu Ghraib prisoners

Baltimore, MD

Bucks County Beacon

Written by Thomas F. Schaller , University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Rural white voters have long enjoyed outsize power in American politics. They have inflated voting power in the U.S. Senate , the U.S. House and the Electoral College .

Why ‘White Rural Rage’ Is a Threat to American Democracy

Chicago, IL

Natalie Frank, Ph.D.

Sandra Kolalou found guilty of 2022 murder of Frances Walker. In a harrowing case that shook the Arcadia Terrace neighborhood of Chicago, Sandra Kolalou has been found guilty of the first-degree murder of her landlord, Frances Walker, in 2022. Kolalou, who was accused of killing Walker before dismembering her body, faced multiple charges, including the gruesome act of body mutilation.

Chicago Woman Convicted of Murdering, Dismembering Landlord After Receiving Eviction Notice

North Carolina State

Gulfport, MS

GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi city council member pleaded guilty to federal charges after running a multimillion-dollar illegal drug business, prosecutors said Thursday.  Biloxi City Council member Robert Leon Deming, III, 47, reached a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi on conspiracy charges. Deming sold over $2 million worth of CBD and vape products that contained controlled substances, prosecutors said. The Drug Enforcement Administration received complaints that some of the products he sold made customers ill.  “A public official’s side job should not be running a business that distributes millions of dollars in illegal controlled substances and endangers the health and safety of its customers,” said U.S. Attorney Todd Gee.  As part of his plea agreement, Deming agreed to forfeit a yellow Monster Truck with oversized tires and a lift kit and over $1.9 million. He will be sentenced in August.

Mississippi city council member pleads guilty to federal drug charges

Jersey City, NJ

Morristown Minute

Two members of a notorious Jersey City gang face life imprisonment under a sweeping indictment. In a significant crackdown on gang violence and organized crime, the U.S. Attorney's Office has announced the indictment of two Jersey City gang members, Kenneth Harrigan and Darion Canary, under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Both men are accused of participating in a racketeering conspiracy that involved murder, shootings, and extensive narcotics distribution.

Gang Members Face Life Sentence for Murder and Trafficking

MOUNT HOREB, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin authorities on Thursday promised a thorough investigation of the fatal police shooting of a student who they say was armed outside a middle school, as families in the community gathered to comfort one another. Authorities did not release additional details on the inquiry being led by the Wisconsin Department of Justice and have not released the name of the student.  “When faced with a deadly threat, they responded with deadly force,” Mount Horeb Police Chief Doug Vierck wrote in a Facebook post asking for patience with the ongoing investigation. “No officers, students, or staff were injured other than the armed individual.”  Authorities previously said only that officers responded to the school after receiving a report of someone with a weapon. They still have not said whether the student fired a weapon, pointed one at police or what type of weapon he had.

Middle school focuses on recovery as authorities investigate shooting of armed student

South Carolina State

Beaufort, SC

Explore Beaufort SC

Hey y’all. Beaufort did it again. Beautiful Beaufort, SC was just named among the Most Beautiful Coastal Towns in the South by Southern Living magazine in its recently published article, “The 15 Most Beautiful Coastal Towns in the South.”

3 South Carolina spots named among Southern Living's 15 Most Beautiful Coastal Towns in South

WASHINGTON (AP) — A driver died after a vehicle crashed into an outer perimeter gate of the White House complex, and the incident late Saturday was being investigated as a traffic crash, police said. President Joe Biden was spending the weekend in Delaware, and the Secret Service said there was no threat to the White House. The male driver, who was not immediately identified, was found dead in the vehicle following the crash shortly before 10:30 p.m., according to a Secret Service statement. The Metropolitan Police Department said the vehicle crashed into a security barrier at the intersection of 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Police were called to the scene at 10:46 p.m. and said one adult male was pronounced dead from the crash into a security barrier around the complex. The Secret Service said security protocols were put in place and that there was no threat to the White House. The Secret Service and police will continue to investigate.

Kim Kardashian talks criminal justice reform at White House

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