Author: rpnadmin

A woman pleaded guilty in Maricopa County Superior Court in Arizona after claiming false pregnancies against two men, including one who appeared on “The Bachelor.” Laura Owens’ pleas were for two counts of fraudulent schemes and tricks and one count each of perjury and taking another person’s identity, according to court records. As part of the plea deal, Owens, 36, will be on probation for three of the counts, though she could face prison time on the remaining count of fraudulent schemes. She is also forbidden from contact with her victims and will have to pay restitution. An additional 10…

A Honduran immigrant who earlier this year was convicted of blocking ICE operations now stands accused of illegally registering to vote in California. Darwin Jonathan Rivera-Flores filed his registration last year, despite not being a U.S. citizen, authorities said. “Today’s arrest is the first of many to come,” said Bill Essayli, who is acting as U.S. attorney in Los Angeles. “Unfortunately, because states like California allow non-citizens to easily register to vote and receive a ballot by mail, there’s no telling how many non-citizens are currently registered to vote.” Mr. Rivera was cited earlier this year with obstructing access to…

PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Jurors in the closely watched Lindsay Clancy trial began deliberating this week – but had not reached a verdict by the end of the day Friday. They have a lot to consider. Over the past five weeks, the jury heard testimony from doctors, first responders, relatives and even Clancy’s former husband. It now weighs the question of whether she should be held criminally responsible for killing her three young children at her Massachusetts home in 2023. Both sides agree Clancy did it. But her attorneys argue the former labor and delivery nurse was suffering from postpartum psychosis…

WASHINGTON — Voting rights, the work of the civil rights movement and racial justice took center stage on the National Mall Friday, with protesters gathering ahead of midterm elections and following a wave of changes to voting laws and redistricting that some have condemned as detrimental to Black Americans. Hundreds of people gathered near the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for the 2026 “Defend the Vote” March on Washington, organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III, echoing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 march. The event follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark April decision in…

A judge has granted a hearing to explore claims that a man wants to recant allegations of sexual abuse years ago by Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky, 82, has been serving a decades-long prison sentence since he was convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse in 2012. Eight young men testified about what happened to them as boys. He has repeatedly lost efforts to get a new trial, but Sandusky’s lawyers are trying again. A man identified in court documents as R.R. said he was coached extensively by authorities. “I was told – both directly and indirectly…

PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy trial ended a second day of deliberations on Friday without a verdict in the case of the Massachusetts woman charged with killing her three children in 2023. Clancy doesn’t deny strangling her children, but her lawyer said she did it because she had lost her grip on reality due to postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness that can follow childbirth. In the months before the killings, Clancy sought treatment for her worsening mental health, including a stay in a psychiatric hospital. Prosecutors said Clancy knew what she was doing. They say she…

A Wisconsin woman was pulled over at gunpoint twice within 10 days after a Milwaukee police detective failed to remove a homicide-related alert tied to her car from a national law enforcement database, leaving it visible to a Flock license-plate camera in a homicide investigation she had nothing to do with, according to police and the woman’s account. Amber Newell, a Milwaukee woman, was driving on Interstate 94 in Brookfield on Aug. 6 when Brookfield police officers surrounded her vehicle with weapons drawn after a Flock camera flagged her car as connected to a Milwaukee homicide. Video from the scene,…

Years into efforts to purge Richmond, Virginia – a former Confederate Capital – of memorials honoring the Confederacy, the Commonwealth of Virginia began removing three more Confederate memorials in the city on Friday. Statues honoring Confederate Generals Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson and Gov. William “Extra Billy” Smith, as well as Confederate Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire, had been displayed in Capitol Square, a public park and civic campus near the state Capitol, for more than 100 years. The Virginia legislature ordered the statues’ removal during its 2026 session. “This doesn’t change the history of the Civil War,” said former Democratic State…

WASHINGTON — The FBI is dropping a categorical hiring ban on applicants who have had sexual encounters with prostitutes and will instead consider in a more holistic manner at least some candidates who have engaged in the practice in the past, according to people familiar with the matter. The move away from an automatic disqualification falls along a continuum of evolving recruitment standards within federal law enforcement and at the buttoned-up bureau, which several years ago relaxed its approach to candidates’ past marijuana use and has drawn more recent concern by current and former agents about a perceived loosening of…

Disposable nicotine vapes would be banned in California if Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a bill passed this week by the state Legislature. If the Democratic governor signs Assembly Bill 762 into law, Californians would be banned from importing or manufacturing disposable tobacco vapes for sale beginning Jan. 1. Starting Jan. 1, 2028, state residents would be banned from selling, distributing or offering new or refurbished disposable vapes for sale. The legislation, which was passed by the California State Assembly Wednesday, defines the disposable vapes as “a vaporization device that contains a tobacco product, as defined, but not cannabis or a…