Author: rpnadmin

A giraffe named Gracie who went missing from a game ranch in Texas was recovered safely after being spotted during an aerial search. Real County Sheriff Nathan Johnson said on social media that the 3-year-old giraffe was found around 7:30 a.m. Friday. She was found about 4 miles south of her home at the Cedar Hollow Ranch in Leakey, 90 miles northwest of San Antonio, the sheriff said. Ranch manager Vic Jones told San Antonio’s WOAI-TV that the helicopter search was launched after a trail camera spotted Gracie southwest of the ranch. Dr. Pat O’Neil, a veterinarian who helped transfer…

The Supreme Court forcefully affirmed America’s guarantee of automatic citizenship to persons born on U.S. soil, ruling Tuesday against President Trump’s attempt to unilaterally rewrite the bedrock birthright. The court’s majority said the Constitution was clear when it granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” — and that includes children of illegal immigrants or temporary legal visitors. “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ’every free-born person in…

Charlie Kirk’s parents and his widow, Erika Kirk, will attend a key hearing in his murder case next week in Utah, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Prosecutors will aim to show during the weeklong preliminary hearing that they have enough evidence against Tyler Robinson to proceed to a trial. The hearing, set to begin July 6, will mark the most significant presentation of evidence in the case so far – and the first time that Kirk’s family will be in the courtroom with…

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Catholic Archdiocese has agreed to pay $395 million to settle more than 500 lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse by church officials, plaintiffs’ attorneys said Monday. San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone will have to write an apology letter to each survivor as part of the settlement. The settlement also requires the archdiocese to implement a series of child protection and transparency reforms, including creating a list of clergy accused of abuse, said Jeff Anderson, an attorney representing dozens of child sexual abuse victims. The settlement comes three years after the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy and…

NEW YORK — A self-exiled billionaire Chinese business tycoon once believed to be among China’s wealthiest men was sentenced Monday to 30 years in a U.S. prison for a massive financial fraud. Guo Wengui, who fled China a decade ago and reinvented himself as a U.S.-based Communist Party critic, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan. Given a chance to speak before hearing his sentence, Guo protested his treatment in jail, saying he fainted and fell down at 5 a.m. Monday. He said doctors at a hospital said he should stay there for treatment, but he was…

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was gifted concert tickets in Puerto Rico last year as members of the high court continued to accept paid teaching gigs and receive royalties for books they have written, according to financial disclosure forms released Monday that provide insight into how the justices spend time off the bench. Sotomayor’s disclosure form says she and unidentified guests attended the concert last August while she was on a private trip to Puerto Rico. The paperwork does not identify the performer, but Puerto Rican star Bad Bunny is known to have performed a series of shows…

A JetBlue pilot reported hitting a drone as he approached JFK International Airport to land in New York Monday morning. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident that happened as the plane passed through 3,000 feet around 7:15 a.m. as it was crossing the coastline. The plane landed safely without any additional help, and no damage was found when the plane was inspected afterwards. “We collided with a drone back there in the turn,” the pilot told an air traffic controller, according to ATC.com. “It hit us right above the cockpit.” The airline said all the passengers deplaned normally,…

The parents of a 7-year-old Michigan boy who weighed 255 pounds when he died have been charged with murder, torture and child abuse, prosecutors said. “Clearly the parents were feeding the child improperly, to say the least,” Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said Monday. “He wasn’t getting the nutrition he needed.” Casper O’Brien died last November after first responders were called to the family’s home in Flint because he’d stopped breathing, prosecutors said. His parents – Damien O’Brien, 40, and Jessica O’Brien, 41 – have each been charged with second-degree murder, torture and three counts of second-degree child abuse. The…

Arkansas is moving forward with its plan to ban government food aid from being used to buy candy and soda beginning on Wednesday, even though a federal judge ruled last week that similar restrictions in other states violated federal law. Announcing the plan on Monday, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited an urgent need to combat a “chronic disease epidemic” in America, including high rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. On one floor of the state’s Department of Human Services, “our state has been approving food stamp purchases for soft drinks and candy, while on another floor, our state’s Medicaid…

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico’s governor said Monday that state officials could pursue billions of dollars in civil damages after revelations that U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents repeatedly allowed shipments of fentanyl to flow into drug-plagued communities as investigators sought to build bigger cases. Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham vowed to take her outrage “right to the White House and Congress” to seek assurances the DEA is no longer using the risky law enforcement strategy in New Mexico – and that it is not being replicated elsewhere. Overdoses have surged in New Mexico, even as fentanyl deaths declined in other…