Author: rpnadmin

Retailer Target pulled a children’s Halloween costume from its shelves Monday after widespread social media backlash, apologizing for selling a garment critics said evoked racist minstrel caricatures. Critics say the costume, along with its promotional image of a Black child modeling the get-up, is reminiscent of caricatures from Jim Crow-era minstrel shows that embedded stereotypes into popular culture and helped justify discrimination, segregation and racial violence. “As a company, we know we got this wrong, and we are deeply sorry. The costume is offensive and should never have been part of our assortment. It is no longer available for sale,”…

Three U.S. Secret Service officials were placed on administrative leave Tuesday, pending the outcome of an investigation by the agency’s professional standards office. The three were operating in non-law-enforcement capacities and were being investigated for potential misconduct, the agency’s public information office reported. However, the cause for the action remained unclear as the Office of Professional Responsibility was beginning its review. The Secret Service has been under scrutiny as President Donald Trump has been the subject of at least three assassination plots in the past two years. In April, police said an armed man breached security at the Washington Hilton…

A 35-year-old California man was arrested Tuesday on charges of possessing an assembled guillotine, which U.S. Capitol Police spotted in the bed of his pickup truck near the U.S. Supreme Court. Philan-Tam-Duy Le of Julian, California, was arrested for carrying a dangerous weapon.  Capitol Police seized the guillotine and are investigating why the suspect, who drove from California to the District, had the device. They said investigators are working to go through the driver’s background, according to a USCP statement. Pictures released by Capitol Police show the guillotine was fully assembled and standing in an upright position in the bed…

A second witness to a fatal shooting in Houston by a federal immigration agent has been ordered released from custody after more than a month in detention. Daniel Tirado Pantoja was one of three passengers riding in a work van when the driver, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who ran a homebuilding business, was shot July 7. The Department of Homeland Security has said Salgado Araujo, who had lived without legal status in the U.S. for 35 years, had “weaponized his vehicle” and that the officer fired on him in self-defense. U.S. District Judge Alfred Bennett in Houston ordered…

BILLINGS, Mont. — A man killed eight of his relatives, including four children, at a Sunday dinner at a home in Billings, Montana, before taking his own life, a spokesperson for the family told The Associated Press. Jennifer Mercer, who set up an online fundraiser to help cover funeral costs and other expenses and was authorized to release details, identified the victims as representing four generations of the blended family, ranging from a great-grandmother in her 90s to a 7-year-old girl. Police said they responded to the home on Sunday evening and heard gunshots coming from out back, just before…

San Francisco authorities charged two homeless shelter employees with harboring a gunman after the pair allegedly helped hide a robbery suspect who shot and wounded an officer. City police and prosecutors said Oliver Barcenas, 36, and Erika Porter, 45, were jailed last week on charges of obstruction and harboring an attempted murder suspect. Prosecutors said Ms. Porter was arraigned Monday, while Mr. Barcenas was expected to be arraigned Tuesday. The charges stem from a May 31 incident in which police said the duo, who work at what San Francisco officials call a homeless “navigation center,” tried to help Norris Reed…

Seattle’s socialist mayor, Katie Wilson, faces a recall challenge over her handling of public safety, as her approval rating tumbles. City residents Melinda Jacobson and Dale Osterud filed the petition, accusing Ms. Wilson of dereliction of duty in maintaining order and enforcing the law during the roughly eight months she has been in office. A King County Superior Court judge will review the petition Monday in a hearing. If the judge sides with the petitioners, the recall can proceed with a signature campaign for a special election ballot. The recall movement would need nearly 70,000 signatures to force a special…

The family of Jenny Lupton, a Southwest Airlines flight attendant and mother from Moore, Oklahoma, is pressing authorities for answers after she was found dead during a work layover in Waikiki last week. Ms. Lupton, 50, was discovered dead Thursday morning after reportedly falling from the 24th-floor balcony of her room at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, according to KFOR. Her family was not notified until the following day, and they say they still don’t believe her death was intentional. “We strongly believe that she didn’t do this intentionally,” her sister, Tresa, told KFOR, adding that the family suspects either “some…

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has reached a settlement with Zillow and Redfin to resolve the regulator’s claim that the companies made an illegal deal to suppress competition in online rental advertising. The FTC said Monday that it filed a proposed order with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. It essentially requires Redfin to restart its standalone rental housing listings business, which the commission says will restore competition in the market for rental property listings. The settlement also resolves litigation brought by state attorneys general in Arizona, Connecticut, New York, Virginia and Washington. “This settlement delivers…

San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York was arrested over the weekend in Ohio and pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and possessing criminal tools. Court records show that York initially was charged with engaging in prostitution, but prosecutors amended that to disorderly conduct. York was charged with possessing criminal tools for using his phone to respond to an undercover online prostitution advertisement, according to prosecutors. York was arrested Sunday morning at a mobile home community in East Palestine, Ohio, near where he was born and raised in Youngstown. He was released after posting a $5,000 bond. He…